Jitaiu^ 






k^fk^Ki^ •SSKtS^' Ki> m 




TO 01 




//// 



\ 



i \ 






' 



» ■ 



mimmmm 



""mmmm 



OUR DAY 

In the Light of Prophecy 




JESUS WEEPING OVER 
JERUSALEM 



'If thou hadst known, even thou, at least 
in this thy day, the things which belong 
unto thy peace!" Luke 19:42. 



Our Day 

In the Light of Prophecy 



... / 

By W/a/SPICER 



"Whatsoever things were written aforetime 
were written for our learning, that we through 
patience and comfort of the Scriptures might 
have hope." Rom. 15:4. 



REVIEW AND HERALD PUBLISHING ASSN. 

WASHINGTON. D. C. 

South Bend, Ind. r ^ f, New York City 



LW"^! 



1 



^'s^^ 



Copyrighted, 1918, by 
Review and Herald Publishing AssoeiATF®N 



Copyrighted in London, England 
All Rights Reserved 



-61918 

* 

©CI.A481940 



CONTENTS 



The Book That Speaks to Our Day - - - - 13 

The Witness of the Centuries _ _ _ - 25 

Prophetic Outline of the World's History - - 39 

The Second Coming of Christ _ _ _ - 51 

Signs of the Approaching End ----- 65 

The Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 - - - - 79 

The Dark Day of 1780 _-..-- 85 

The Falling Stars of 1833 ----- 93 

The Meaning of Present-Day Conditions - - 105 

The Historic Prophecy of Daniel 7 - - - 117 

The 1260 Years of Daniel's Prophecy - - - 131 

Dawn of a New Era - - - - - - 139 

The Work of the *' Little Horn" Power - - - 145 

The Bible Sabbath ------- 159 

Glimpses of Sabbath Keeping after New Testament 

Times -------- 173 

The Law of God - - -- - - - - 183 

Justification by Faith ------ 191 

Baptism --------- 199 

The Prophecy of Daniel 8 - - - - - 205 
The Cleansing of the Sanctuary in Type and 

Antitype -------- 213 

A Great Prophetic Period - -- - - -219 

The Prophecy Fulfilled ----- 229 

A World-Wide Movement - ----- 239 

The Judgment-Hour Message - - - > 247 

The Origin of Evil - ------ 257 

vii 



viii Contents 

Spiritualism: Axciext .^'d ^Modern - - _ 265 

Life Only ix Christ ------- 275 

The Exd of the Wicked ------ 2S7 

AxGELs: Their ]\Iixistry ---.._ 295 

The Time of the Exd ---.-. 303 

The Eastern Question - - - - - - 321 

Armageddon - _---_-. 337 
The INIiLLEXNiu^i - - - - - - -351 

The Home of the Sa^tld ------ 351 



FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS 



Jesus Weeping over Jerusalem ----- Frontispiece 

The Good Shepherd --------- 12 

Healing the Centurion's Servant ------ 16 

Christ's Weapon of Defense — The Word of God - - 19 

On the Way to Emmaus -----.__ 24 

The Great Image - -- 38 

Babylon in Her Glory -- - - - - - -40 

The Handwriting on the Wall 42 

The Ascension of Christ -50 

Christ Coming in Glory -------- 58 

Christ Answering His Disciples' Questions - - - - 64 

The Siege of Jerusalem by the Romans under Titus, a. d. 70 68 

The Catacombs near Rome -- -72 

Lisbon from Across the Bay 78 

Midday at Sea, May 19, 1780 ------- 84 

The Great Meteoric Shower, Nov. 13, 1833 - - - - 92 

The Sign of Fire 98 

Satan Offers Gold, and the World Stampedes to Its 

Destruction - 104 

A Faithful and Wise Servant 108 

The Sunset Hour - - 114 

Philip and the Eunuch - - 116 

Rome on the Tiber _----.-.. 124 

The Invasion of the Roman Empire by the Huns - - - 128 

Raising the Siege of Rome, a. d. 538 ------ 130 

Storming of the Bastille Prison in Paris - - . - 138 

The Triple Crown --------- 144 

The Love of Power — The Power of Love - - - - 146 

Christians in Prison Beneath the Colosseum Awaiting 

Martyrdom ---------- 148 

The Shame of Religious Wars - - 152 

Christ and the Scribes 158 



IX 



X Full-page Illustrations — Continued 

The Sabbath from Eden to Eden - - - - - -168 

Christ and His Disciples in The CoRN-nEUDS - - - 172 

Waldenses Hunted by the Armies of Rome - - - - 176 

The Gift of God ------___ iqq 

The Baptism of Christ - - - - - - - -198 

Symbols of Medo-Persia and Grecia - _ _ _ _ 204 

The Camp of Israel in the Wilderness - _ _ _ _ 210 

Our Great High Priest -------- 212 

Artaxerxes Sending the Jews to Rebuild Jerusalem, b. c. 457 218 

Rebuilding Jerusalem -------- 224 

The Anointing of Jesus at His Baptism ----- 228 

The Crupifixion of Christ ------- 232 

The Third Angel's Message ------- 238 

A Christian Mother Exhorting Her Daughter to Martyrdom 246 

Lucifer Plotting Against the Government of God - - - 256 

The Redemption Price -------- 260 

Saul and the Witch of Endor ------- 264 

The Salem Witchcraft --_ 270 

"He IS Risen" 274 

Lot Fleeing from Sodom -------- 286 

Peter Delivered from Prison ------- 294 

Jacob's Dream in Bethel 298 

Modern Inventions Fulfilling Prophecy ----- 302 

The Hoe Double Octuple Press - - - - - - 316 

Fortifications on the Bosporus ------- 320 

Modern Jerusalem --------- 329 

The Great Battle of Armageddon - - - - - - 336 

United States Battleship "Nevada" 340 

Moses Viewing the Promised Land - 360 

The Saints' Eternal Home ------- 366 

The Master at the Door -------- 369 



jAA-^ 


—*«.:«=««:. 




■"- ^^ 


p*:*! 




- 






,::;■ . '^"^iP" 


I ^K| 




:.•«:: 


iBiii^/' -^^^^t 


A' 


^' 


..M:Sy-.- 


_ 1 .^M^fc- 


•■"■^" %.:.„..■: 'Vi::.:.. 


^M^0^'-:- ■'- ■''^^^^- ■■■'■ '-w ■" 


^E-^ •-'-' ■ m 


■*... .,.:- 




-^mKKIm'L 



FOUNDED UPON A ROCK " 



"Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and 
a light unto my path." Ps. 119:1 05. 



FOREWORD 

These are eventful times. With history-making changes 
passing rapidly before men's eyes, the questions press upon 
thoughtful minds in all lands, What do these things mean? 
What next in the program of world-shaping events? 

Like a great searchlight shining across the centuries, the 
sure Word of Prophecy focuses its bright beams upon Our 
Day. In this light we see clearly the trend of events, and 
may understand what comes next in the program of history 
fulfilling prophecy. 

In. the Volume of the Book the living God speaks to Our 
Day of events of the past that have a lesson for the present, 
and of things to come. Divine prophecy fulfilled before 
men's eyes is God's challenge to unbelief. The Word of Holy 
Writ has been the guiding light through all the ages. It is 
the lamp to our feet today. 

"Steadfast, serene, unmovable, the same, 
Year after year, . . . 

Burns on forevermore that quenchless flame; 
Shines on that inextinguishable light." 

11 




THE GOOP SHEPHERD 



'The Word was made flesh, and dwelt 
among us." John 1:14. 




'PEACE BE TO THIS HOUSE" 



"■ If any man hear My voice, and open 
the door, I will come in to him, and 
will sup with him, and he with Me." 
Rev. 3:20. 



THE BOOK THAT SPEAKS TO OUR DAY 



Man may write a true book, but only God, the source of 
life, can write a living book. **The word of God . . . liveth 
and abideth forever.'' 1 Peter 1 : 23. The Bible is the living 
word of God. We look at the volume; we hold it in our hands. 
It is like other books in form and printer's art. But the 
voice of God speaks from these pages, and the word spoken 
is alive. It is able to do in the heart that receives it what 
can be done only by divine power. 

The Book That Talks 

Far in the heart of Africa a missionary read to the people 
in their own language from the translated Word of God. 
''See!" they cried; **see! the book talks! The white man 
has a book that talks!'' With that simplicity of speech so 
common to children of nature,. they had exactly described it. 
This is a book that talks. What the wise man says of its 
counsels through parents to children, is true of all the book: 

13 



14 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

"When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, 
it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with 
thee.'' Prov. 6:22. 

Here is companionship, faithful and true, a blessed guide 
and guardian and friend. 

"Holy Bible! book divine! 
Precious treasure, thou art mine!" 

God Its Author 

The sixty-six books of Holy Scripture were written by 
many penmen, over a space of fifteen centuries; yet it is one 
book, and one voice speaks through all its pages. Spurgeon 
once said of his experience with this book: 

"When I see it, I seem to hear a voice springing up from it, saying, 
*I am the book of God; man, read me. I am God's writing; open my 
leaf, for I was penned by God; read it, for He is my author.'" 

This book declares of itseK: "All scripture is given by 
inspiration of God." 2 Tim. 3:16. "The prophecy came 
not in old time by the '^dU of man: but holy men of God 
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2 Peter 
1:21. As the rugged verse of the old hymn puts it: 

"Let all the heathen writers join 
To form one perfect book: 
Great God, if once compared with Thine, 
How mean their writings look! 

"Not the most perfect rules they gave 
Could show one sin forgiven. 
Nor lead a step beyond the grave; 
But Thine conducts to heaven." 

It is the voice of the Almighty. Very different it is from 
the sacred books of the non-Christian rehgions. In those 
writings it is man speaking about God; in the Holy Scrip- 
tures it is God speaking to man. The difference is as great 
a? heaven is higher than earth. Here it is not man grop- 
ing in the darkness after God. In this book of God's reve- 
lation we see the divine arm reaching down to save the lost, 



The Book That Speaks to Our Day 15 

and hear the voice of the loving Father calling to His chil- 
dren, every one and everywhere. "Incline your ear," He 
calls; ''hear, and your soul shall live." Isa. 55:3. 

The Word That Creates 

We must have something more than instruction; we must 
have a word of power that is able to tell of sins forgiven, 
and to conduct us beyond the grave to heaven. One of the 
greatest of China's sages, Mencius, said, "Instruction can im- 
part information, but not the power to execute." That 
touches the crucial point. We must have instruction that 
can come with power divine to execute. We have it only 
in God's words. Christ said: "It is the spirit that quick- 
eneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak 
unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." John 6:63. 

The words of God are living words. When God spoke 
in the beginning, "Let there be light," lo, the light sprang 
out of the darkness. There was power in the word spoken 
to bring forth. "Let the earth bring forth grass," was the 
word of the Lord: and the earth was carpeted with its first 
rich greensward. So through all the work of creation, the 
creative power was in the word spoken. 

"By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all 
the host of them by the breath of His mouth." "He spake, 
and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast." Ps. 
33:6, 9. 

Even so, when this word speaks instruction to man, there 
is creative power in the word, if received, to work mightily 
in the soul that is dead in trespasses and sins. Man must 
be born again, be re-created. That we know; for Christ 
says, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee. Except a man be born 
again ["from above," margin], he cannot see the kingdom 
of God." John 3:3. 

And the word of God — the Bible from heaven — re- 
ceived by faith, is the agency by which this new birth "from 




HEALING THE CENTURION'S 
SERVANT 



'Speak the word only, and my servant 
shall be healed," Matt. 8:8. 



The Book That Speaks to Our Day 17 

above'' is wrought. This is the declaration of our text: 
''Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorrupt- 
ible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.'' 
1 Peter 1:23. 

The Word That Works Within 

Not only does the word of God give the new birth, making 
the believer a new man, — the past forgiven and a new heart 
within, — but the word that re-creates abides in the beUeving 
heart that studies it and clings to it, to work in the life with 
actual power that is not of the man himself. To the Thes- 
salonians, who had '' turned to God from idols to serve the 
living and true God," the apostle wrote: 

"For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, be- 
cause, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of 
us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, 
the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that 
believe." 1 Thess. 2:13. 

The word itself works within, and works effectually. 
There is nothing mechanical about it. The mere letter prof- 
its nothing. The Bible on the center table, unstudied and 
unloved, has no magic power. But God promises to abide 
by His Spirit of power in the heart that listens to His voice 
and trembles at His word. Jesus Himself tells us the secret 
of this power of the word to work in the believing heart: 

''If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father 
will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our 
abode with him." John 14:23. 

No wonder, then, that believing and receiving the word 
brings divine power into the Ufe, making it possible for trans- 
formations of character to be wrought, for victories to be 
won and obedience rendered to every command of God. 

Simply believing God's word touches the current of ever- 
lasting power, even as the trolley arm of the electric car 
reaches up and touches the current of power flowing through 

2 



18 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

the wire overhead. The faith that takes the living word 
brings the power divine into the heart to move all the spirit- 
ual mechanism of life's service. 

The Word Our Safety and Defense 

When Christ came to live as our example in the flesh, 
and to give His life a sacrifice for sin, He, the divine Son of 
God, made HimseK like unto His brethren. '^I can of Mine 
own seK do nothing," He said. John 5:30. Tempted and 
tried, He found His defense in the Holy Scriptures. When 
Satan came to tempt Him to sin, the Saviour said, ''It is 
written." He clung to the sure defense. Again the tempter 
came. He was met with the word, ''It is written again." 
The third time it was the same weapon of defense, "It is 
written." Matt. 4:1-11. 

Christ found safety only in the Scriptures of truth. So 
the Bible is the Christian's shield against the enemy's at- 
tacks. As Jesus studied the Scriptures and kept the words 
ever in His heart for a defense against temptation, so must 
every Christian study and meditate upon God's Holy Word 
if its counsels and precepts are to be his defense in the mo- 
ment of sudden temptation to sin. "Thy word have I hid in 
mine heart," said the psalmist, "that I might not sin against 
Thee." Ps. 119: 11. It was the only way for Christ, our 
Pattern; it is the only way for us. 

The Bread of Life 

The word of God is the daily food for the soul. "It is 
written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word 
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Matt. 4:4. 

Who has not, in hurried times, missed a meal, working 
on through the day, never thinking of the prolonged fast? 
But after a time there came a sense of weakening force, a 
lack of physical power. What was the trouble? At once 
the reason was evident — one had not taken food, and the 




CHRIST'S WEAPON OF DEFENSE — 
THE WORD OF GOD 



Get thee hence, Satan: for it is writ- 
ten, Thou shall worship the Lord thy 
God, and Him only shalt thou serve." 
Matt. 4:10. 



20 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

system was calling for a renewal of its forces. Just so the 
spiritual life must needs be fed by the word of God. 

Do we at times feel a sense of weakening of the spiritual 
power, a letting down of the vital forces of the soul? Ah, 
in the hurry of life we have neglected to feed upon the hving 
bread. We can no more sustain spiritual vigor and health 
without feeding daity upon God's Holy Word than we can 
maintain physical power mthout eating our daily bread. 
Eat of the Hfe-giving word. The taste for it grows with the 
partaking. 

There is life in "every word." The psalmist foimd the 
Lord's testimonies *'sw^eeter also than honey and the honey- 
comb," or, as the marginal reading has it, than "the drop- 
ping of honeycombs." Ps. 19:10. We get the picture of 
the honeycomb inverted, the cell caps broken open, the sweet- 
ness dripping down. Just so everj^ word of the Lord is a 
cell full of sweetness and life for the soul that feasts upon 
the Holy Scriptures. 

The Source of All Doctrine 

The Bible is the complete and perfect rule of faith and 
doctrine. Here every doctrine of salvation is found. Inspira- 
tion has declared it in the words of the apostle Paul to 
Timothy : 

"From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, 
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through 
faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by in- 
spiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, 
for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man 
of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good 
works." 2 Tim. 3:15-17. 

The divine command is, "Study." For every generation 
there has been a message borne by this living word, making 
call to reformation of life, or giving warning and comfort. 
"The Bible is not a collection of truths formulated in prop- 



The Book That Speaks to Our Day 21 

ositions," said Dr. Samuel Harris, of Yale, "but God^s 
majestic march through history, redeeming men from sin." 

In every age God has been ruling and overruling, witness- 
ing by His Spirit through the living word. The experiences 
recorded of past ages have their special lesson for the pres- 
ent time: 

"Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written 
for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the 
Scriptures might have hope.'^ Rom. 15:4. 

'Xet vs therfore all with feruent desyre,'' as the Old 
English of 1549 spelled the exhortation of Erasmus, "thyrste 
after these spirituall sprynges. . . . Let vs kisse these swete 
wordes of Christ with a pure affeccion. Let vs be newe 
transformed into them, for soche are oure maners as oure 
studies be." 

The Book for All Mankind 

It speaks in every tongue to the human heart. Its power 
to transform has been shown through all the centuries in 
every clime and among every race. One of the Gospels was 
put into the Chiluba tongue of Central Africa. After a time 
a Garenganze chief came to Dan Crawford, the missionary, 
changed from the spirit of a fierce, wicked barbarian to that 
of a teachable child. Explaining his conversion, the chief 
said: "I was startled to find that Christ could speak Chiluba. 
I heard him speak to me out of the printed page, and what 
he said was, 'Follow me!"' 

Of the Bible's universal speech to all mankind. Dr. Henry 
van Dyke has said: 

"Born in the East, and clothed in Oriental form and imagery, the 
Bible walks the ways of all the world with familiar feet, and enters land 
after land to find its own everywhere. It has learned to speak in hun- 
dreds of languages to the heart of man. It comes into the palace to tell 
the monarch that he is the servant of the Most High, and into the cot- 
tage to assure the peasant that he is the son of God. Children hsten to 
its stories with wonder and delight, and wise men ponder them as par- 



22 



Our Day in the lAght of Prophecy 



ables of life. It has a word of peace for the time of peril, a word of com- 
fort for the day of calamity, a word of light for the hour of darkness. 
Its oracles are repeated in the assembly of the people, and its comisels 
whispered in the ear of the lonely. The wise and the proud tremble 
at its warnings, but to the wounded and penitent it has a mother's 
voice. . . . 

"Its great words grow richer, as pearls do when they are worn near 
the heart. No man is poor or desolate who has this treasure for his own. 
When the landscape darkens and the trembling pilgrim comes to the 
valley named the Shadow, he is not afraid to enter; he takes the rod and 




RAISING JARIUS'S DAUGHTER 



In Him was life; and the life was the 
light of men," John 1:4. 



staff of Scripture in his hand; he says to friend and comrade, 'Good-by, 
we shall meet again,* and comforted by that support, he goes toward the 
lonely pass as one who climbs through darkness into hght." — The Century 
Magazine. 

In the days of His life on earth, Jesus was a welcome 
guest in humble homes in Judea and Galilee. "The common 
people heard Him gladly.'^ His presence brought peace and 
comfort to the home. He is no longer with us in bodily pres- 
ence; but He is the same Saviour stUl — "Jesus Christ the 
same yesterday, and today, and forever." Heb. 13:8. By 



The Book That Speaks to Our Day 23 

His Spirit, through the living word of Holy Scripture, He 
enters the home where faith receives Him, and speaks again 
the gracious salutation, "Peace be to this house." 

Christ the Central Theme 

All the Bible bears witness of Christ as the Saviour of 
the world. He Himself said of the Scriptures, "They are 
they which testify of Me." John 5:39. "To Him give all 
the prophets witness." Acts 10:43. We see Him as the 
coming Messiah in promise and prophecy, in type and shadow. 
His is the divine, living personality standing out in every 
book that makes up the Sacred Volume. As we read with 
loving heart, the Author seems near in every page. 

''Reading, methinks I bend 
Before the cross 
Where died my King, my Friend. 
The whole world's loss 
• For love of Him is gain." 

And having beheld Him giving His life as the divine sacri- 
fice, and rising in triumph over death to be our great High 
Priest in the heavenly temple, as we read these Sacred Scrip- 
tures yet again, in every book, from Genesis to Revelation, 
we see Him as the coming King of kings, coming to take His 
children to the eternal home of the saved. The whole book 
is a bright window through which we gaze on coming glory. 

"And yet again I stand 

Where the seer stood, 
Gazing across the strand, 

Beyond the flood: 
The gates of pearl afar, 

The streets of gold, 
The bright and morning Star 

Mine eyes behold." 

"The Word of God . . . liveth and abideth forever." 
1 Peter 1:23. "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but 
My words shall not pass away." Matt. 24:35. 




ON THE WAY TO EMMAUS 



Beginning at Moses and all the proph- 
ets, He expounded unto thera in all the 
Scriptures the things concerning Him- 
self." Luke 24:27. 




THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM 



*'l am God, . . . declaring . . . from 
ancient times the things that are not 
yet done." Isa. 46:9, 10. 



THE WITNESS OF THE CENTURIES 



The Sure Word of Prophecy 

"We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto 
ye do well that ye take heed/' 2 Peter 1:19. 

The prophetic scriptures afford infalUble evidence that 
the voice of the living God speaks in Holy Writ. One of 
the distinguishing marks of divinity is the power that fore- 
tells and records the course of history long ages before the 
events corae to pass. 

God's Challenge 

God's challenge to false religious systems in olden time 
was this: 

** Declare us things for to come. Show the things that 
are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods." 
Isa. 41 : 22, 23. 

25 



26 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

And all the gods of the nations were silent; for they are 
no gods. The Lord alone, the one who speaks by the Holy 
Scriptures, is able to tell the end from the beginning. 

*'I am God, and there is none hke Me, declaring the end 
from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are 
not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand." Isa. 46: 9, 10. 

By this means God has borne witness of Himself through 
the ages, that it might be known that the Most High rules 
above all the kingdoms of men, and that men might recog- 
nize His purpose to put an end to sin and bring eternal salva- 
tion to His people. '^I have spoken it," He declares, ''I 
will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it." 

The fulfilment of the word of prophecy in history is a 
fascinating story. To the Lord, the future is an open book, 
even as the present. The word is spoken, telhng of the 
event to come; it is written on the parchment scroll by the 
prophet's pen. Time passes; centuries come and go. Then, 
when the hour of the prophecy arrives, lo, there appears the 
fulfilment. And it is seen in matters pertaining to individ- 
uals, as well as in the affairs of cities and empires. 

The Word Fulfilled after Long Waiting 

In the dream divinely given to the lad Joseph, it was 
plainly foretold that his brothers would one day come as sup- 
pHants before him. His father rebuked him for telling the 
dream, saying, *' Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren 
indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?" 
Gen. 37 : 10. The brothers sold the lad into slavery, to be 
well rid of him. Yet twenty years later, all unconscious of 
his identity, these same brethren presented themselves before 
the prime minister of Egypt, and *'feU before him on the 
ground." Gen. 44:14. 

Again: the wicked stronghold of Jericho had been utterly 
destroyed. Joshua declared: 

^'Cursed be the man . . . that riseth up and buildeth this 
city Jericho: he shaU lay the foundation thereof in his first- 



The Witness of the Centuries 27 

born, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it." 
Joshua 6 : 26. 

The hands of angels had thrown down its walls, and its 
ruin was to stand as a memorial. More than five hundred 
years later, when the apostate Ahab was ruling, and Israel 
and Judah had departed from the Lord, Hiel the Bethelite 
set out to rebuild Jericho. "He laid the foundation thereof 
in Abiram his first-born." 

But accident and death may come at any time. The 
work on the walls went on, no one thinking of the neglected 
Scriptures with their warning of long ago. So the full ac- 
count runs: 

"He laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his first-born, 
and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, ac- 
cording to the word of the Lord, which He spake by Joshua 
the son of Nun." 1 Kings 16: 34. 

The fate of some of the mightiest cities the world ever 
saw has borne testimony through the centuries to the fulfil- 
ment of the prophetic word. 

The Witness of Nineveh 

Nineveh was founded by Nimijod. He built not only his 
capital here by the Tigris, but other towns round about, 
conceiving first of aU the idea of grouping the capital and its 
suburbs into one great city, the "Greater Nineveh," as we 
would say in these days of Greater London and Greater New 
York. At the dawn of history Nineveh was "a great city." 
Gen. 10: 11, 12. In Jonah's day it was an "exceeding great 
city." * Sennacherib, of the Bible story, was its beautifier. 
Rawlinson says: 

"The great palace which he raised at Nineveh surpassed in size and 
splendor all earlier edifices." — ^^ Second Monarchy,''^ chap. 9. 



* " In the book of Jonah," says Records of the Past, " Nineveh is stated 
to have been an exceeding great city of three days' journey ; and that being 
the case, the explanation that Calah on the south and Khorsabad on the 
north were included seems very probable. The distance between these two 
extreme points is about thirty miles, which, at ten miles a day. would take 
the time required." — Vol. XII, part 1, January and February, 1913. 



28 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



A description is presented on the clay cylinder in the 
king's own words: 

"For the wonderment of multitudes of men 
I raised its head — 'the palace which has no rival' 
I called its name." — Taylor Cylinder, "Records of the Past," 
Vol. XII, part 1. 

At the preaching of Jonah the city had repented; but in 
later years pride of conquest and luxury and wealth were 




THE SITE OF NINEVEH 



"How is she become a desolation!" 
Zeph. 2:15. 



filling it with blood. The prophet Nahum warned it of cer- 
tain doom, appealing to those who had any fear of God to 
turn to Him. The message was: 

*'The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; 
and He knoweth them that trust in Him." Nahum 1 : 7. 

Some, no doubt, heeded the warning and turned to God 
for refuge. But the city's life of sin ran on. Then the prophet 
Zephaniah spoke the word, just as the stroke was to fall: 

''Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing 
city! She obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; 



The Witness of the Centuries 29 

she trusted not in the Lord; she drew not near to her God.'' 
Zeph. 3:1, 2. 

Prophecies uttered against the mighty city had declared : 
"He will make an utter end of the place thereof/' ''The 
palace shall be dissolved [''molten," margin]." "She is 
empty, and void, and waste." Nahum 1:8; 2:6, 10. "How 
is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in!" 
Zeph. 2:15. 

The Medes and the Babylonians overthrew Nineveh. The 
king immolated himself in his burning ("molten") palace. 
Nineveh became a desolation. Describing a battle that took 
place there in the seventh century of our era, between the 
Romans and the Persians, the historian Gibbon bears testi- 
mony to the fact that it has indeed become "empty, and 
void, and waste:" 

"Eastward of the Tigris, at the end of the bridge of Mosul, the great 
Nineveh had formerly been erected: the city, and even the ruins of the 
city, had long since disappeared; the vacant place afforded a spacious 
field for the operations of the two armies." — " The History of the Decline 
and Fall of the Roman Emyire" chap. 4^, par. 2^. 

And to this day, the site of Nineveh is pointed out across 
the river from Mosul, only mounds of ruins, these almost 
obliterated by the drifting sands of centuries. The word 
spoken is fulfilled, though at the time it was spoken it little 
seemed to proud and prosperous Nineveh that such a fate 
could ever be hers. 

"Before me rise the walls 
Of the Titanic city, — brazen gates, 
Towers, temples, palaces enormous piled, — 
Imperial Nineveh, the earthly queen! 
In all her golden pomp I see her now. 
Her swarming streets, her splendid festivals. 



"Again I look, — and lo! . . . 
Her walls are gone, her palaces are dust, — 
The desert is around her, and within 
Like shadows have the mighty passed away." 



30 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



From Nineveh's mounds we seem to hear a voice that 
says: ''All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the 
flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof 
falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth forever." 
1 Peter 1:24, 25. 

The Burden of Tyre 

Tyre was the greatest maritime city of antiquity. Its in- 
habitants, the Phoenicians, traded in the ports of all the known 




TYRE BY THE SEA 



They shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and 
break down her towers." Eze. 26:4. 



world. Ezekiel describes the heart of the seas as its borders. 
''Th}^ builders have perfected thy beauty,'' he says. He 
tells how all countries traded in its marts and contributed to 
its wealth. And then, obeying the word of the Lord, the 
prophet bears a message of rebuke and warning, — "the bur- 
den of Tyre," — and pronounces the coming judgment: 

''Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I am against thee, 
O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against 
thee. . . . And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and 



The Witness of the Centuries 31 

break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, 
and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for 
the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have 
spoken it, saith the Lord God." Eze. 26:3-5. 

The accounts of travelers bear witness that the proph- 
ecy has been fulfilled. As to the site of the island city of 
EzekieFs day, Bruce, nearly a century ago, said that he found 
it a ''rock whereon fishers dry their nets." (See "Keith on 
the Prophecies," p. 329.) 

In more recent times. Dr. W. M. Thomson found the 
whole region of Tyre suggestive only of departed glory: 

"There is nothing here, certainly, of that which led Joshua to call it 
'the strong city' more than three thousand years ago (Joshua 19: 29), — 
nothing of that mighty metropolis which baffled the proud Nebuchad- 
nezzar and all his power for thirteen years, until 'every head' in his army 
'was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled,' in the hard service 
against Tyrus (Eze. 29:18), — nothing in this wretched roadstead and 
empty harbor to remind one of the times when merry mariners did sing 
in her markets — no visible trace of those towering ramparts which so 
long resisted the utmost efforts of the great Alexander. All have van- 
ished utterly like a troubled dream, and Tyre haB sunk under the burden 
of prophecy. ... As she is now, and has long been. Tyre is God's witness; 
but great, powerful, and populous, she would be the infidel's boast. This, 
however, she cannot be. Tyre will never rise from her dust to falsify 
the voice of prophecy. 

"Dim is her glory, gone her fame, 

Her boasted wealth has fled; 
On her proud rock, alas! her shame, 

The fisher's net is spread. 
The Tyrian harp has slumbered long, 

And Tyria's mirth is low; 
The timbrel, dulcimer, and song 

Are hushed, or wake to woe." 
— "T/ie Land and the Book/' Vol. II, pp. 626, 627. 

The Desolation of Babylon 

Yet another city of ancient times there was, the mightiest 
of them all, whose fate was a subject of prophecy, and whose 
history bears special testimony for us today; for, more than 



32 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



any other, the Lord used that city as a sjTnbol of the pride 
of life and the exaltation of the selfish heart against God. 

Let us study briefly the desolations pronounced upon 
Babylon of old. 

While Babylon was still the mightiest city of the world, 
with the period of greatest glory yet before it, the Lord re- 
vealed its ignoble end. By the prophet Isaiah He declared: 




BABYLON IN THE DUST 



"Babylon shall become heaps, . . . 
without an inhabitant." Jer. 51:37. 



''Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chal- 
dees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and 
Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shaU it be 
dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the 
Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make 
their fold there. But wild beasta of the desert shall he there; 
and their houses shall be fuU of doleful creatures; and owls 
shall dwell there, and sat>T*s shall dance there. And the 
wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, 
and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to 
come, and her days shall not be prolonged." Isa. 13:19-22. 



The Witness of the Centuries 33 

Never could a more doleful future have been pictured 
for a city full of splendor, the metropolis of the world. About 
one hundred and seventy-five years after this word was writ- 
ten on the parchment scroll, the Medes and Persians were 
at the gates of Babylon. Her time had come, and Chaldea's 
rule was ended. 

"Fallen is the golden city! in the dust, 

Spoiled of her crown, dismantled of her state. 
She that hath made the Strength of Towers her trust, 
Weeps by her dead, supremely desolate! 

"She that beheld the nations at her gate 

Thronging in homage, shall be called no more 

'Lady of Kingdoms!' — Who shall mourn her fate? 
Her guilt is full, her march of triumph o'er." 

But still, under Medo-Persia, and later under the Greeks, 
the city itself was populous and prosperous and beautiful. 
The skeptic of the time may have pointed to it as evidence 
that here, at least, the Hebrew prophet had missed the mark. 

Apollonius, the sage of Tyana, who lived in the days of 
Nero and the apostles, has left an account of Babylon as he 
saw it, as late as the first century of our era. Still the Eu- 
phrates swept beneath its walls, dividing the city into halves, 
with great palaces on either side. He says: 

"The palaces are roofed with bronze, and a ghtter goes off from them; 
but the chambers of the women and of the men and the porticoes are 
adorned partly with silver, and partly with golden tapestries or curtains, 
and partly with solid gold in the form of pictures." 

And of the king's judgment hall he reported: 

"The roof had been carried up in the form of a dome, to resemble 
in a manner the heavens, and that it was roofed with sapphire, a stone 
that is very blue and like heaven to the eye; and there were images of the 
gods, which they worship, fixed aloft, and looking like golden figures 
shining out of the ether." — Philostratus, "Life of Apollonius," book 1, 
chap. 25. 

Evidently Babylon was still "the land of graven images," 
and the desolation foretold by the prophet had not yet be- 
fallen its palaces. But that prophetic word, written eight 



34 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



hundred years before, was still upon the scroll of the Book, 
the sure Word of God, who sees the end from the beginning. 
The view given us by Apollonius is perhaps the last ghmpse 
we have of Babylon's passing glory. Even then for cen- 
turies the walls had been a quarrj^ from which stones were 
drawn for Babylon's rival, Seleucia, on the Tigris. And 




EGYPT'S GLORY DEPARTED 



The idols of Egypt shall be moved.' 
Isa. 19:1. 



Strabo, the Greek geographer, who also wrote in the first 
century, had described Babylon as "in great part deserted," 
adding, 

"No one would hesitate to apply to it what one of the comic writers 
said of Megalopohtae, in Arcadia, 'The great city is a great desert.'" 
— ''Geography,'^ book 16, chap. 1. 

Already pagan writers had begun to describe its condition 
in the terms of the prophecy uttered so long before. And 
now what is its state? The doom foretold has fallen heavy 
upon the city, upon its palaces, and "upon the graven images 
of Babylon." For a century and more, travelers' accounts 
have frequently borne witness to the exact fulfilment of the 



The Witness of the Centuries 35 

prophecy in the remarkable desolations of that city, once 
mistress of the world. 

^'Babylon shall become heaps," said the prophecy, "and 
owls shall dwell there/' This is what Mr. Layard, the Eng- 
lish archeologist, found on his visit in 1845: 

''Shapeless heaps of rubbish cover for many an acre the face of the 
land. . . . On all sides, fragments of glass, marble, pottery, and inscribed 
brick are mingled with that peculiar nitrous and blanched soil, which, 
bred from the remains of ancient habitations, checks or destroys vege- 
tation, and renders the site of Babylon a naked and a hideous waste. 
Owls [which are of a large gray land, and often found in flocks of nearly 
a hundred] start from the scanty thickets, and the foul jackal skulks 
through the furrows." — '^Discoveries Among the Ruins of Nineveh and 
Babylon,'' chap. 21, p. 413. 

The prophecy said, ''Neither shall the Arabian pitch tent 
there." The words might be construed to mean that the 
famous site would never become the place of a Bedouin vil- 
lage. But it is literally true, say travelers, that the Arabs 
avoid the place even for the temporary pitching of their 
tents. They consider the spot under a curse. They call 
the ruins Mudjelihe, 'Hhe Overturned." (See "Encyclo- 
pedia of Islam," art. "Babil.") 

As late as 1913, Missionary W. C. Ising visited the site 
where Professor Koldeway was excavating the ruins of Neb- 
uchadnezzar's palace. He wrote: 

"Involuntarily one is reminded of the prophecy in the thirteenth of 
Isaiah and many other places, which, in course of time, have been fulfilled 
to the letter. No one is living on the site of ancient Babylon, and what- 
ever Arabs are employed by the excavators have built their mud huts 
in the bed of the ancient river, which at the present time is shifted half a 
mile farther west." — European Division Quarterly, Fourth Quarter, 1913. 

Egypt and Edom 

The massive ruins by the Nile bear witness to prophecy 
fulfilled. When Egypt rivaled Babylon, the word was spoken : 
'^ It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it 
exalt itself any more above the nations." Eze. 29:15. It 
was not utterly to pass, as Babylon, but to continue in 



36 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



inferior state. Thus it came to pass. Once populous Edom, 
famed for wisdom and counsel, now lies desolate, according 
to the word: ''Edom shall be a desolation: every one that 
goeth by it shall be astonished." Jer. 49:17. 

The Testimony of History 

Thus the centuries bear testimony to the fulfilment of the 
prophetic word. The panorama of all human history moves 
before us in these writings of the prophets. Flinging their 




RUINS OF EDOM 



" Edom shall be a desolate wilderness." 
Joel 3:19. 



"colossal shadows" across the pages of Holy Writ, as Farrar 
says, we see — 

"The giant forms of empires on their way 
To ruin." 

It is no human book that thus from primitive times forecasts 
the march of history through the ages. 

The Lord not only spoke the word in warning and en- 
treaty for those to whom it first came, but it is written in the 
Scriptures of truth as a testimony to all time, that the Bible 



The Witness of the Centuries 37 

is the word of God, and that all His purposes revealed therein 
and all the promises of the blessed Book are certain and sure. 
The prophets who bore messages from God to Nineveh, and 
Babylon, and Tyre, spoke messages also for our day. 

Fulfilled prophecy is the testimony of the centuries to the 
living God. The evidence of prophecy and its fulfilment is 
God^s challenge and appeal to nien to acknowledge Him as 
the true God and the Holy Scriptures as His word from heaven. 

'^I have declared the former things from the beginning; 
and they went forth out of My mouth, and I showed them; 
I did them suddenly, and they came to pass. Because I 
knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, 
and thy brow brass; I have even from the beginning declared 
it to thee; before it came to pass I showed it thee. . . . Thou 
hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it?'' Isa. 
48:3-6. 

Surely no one can look at the evidence in history of the 
fulfilment of prophecy without seeing that of a truth the 
One who spoke these words knew the end from the begin- 
ning; and finding the living God in the sure word of proph- 
ecy, one must be prepared to listen to His voice in all the 
Scriptures, when it speaks of sin and the way of salvation 
through Jesus Christ. 

Further, the prophetic word also has much to say of 
events yet future, of the course of history in modern times. 
It behooves us to give heed to what that word speaks con- 
cerning our own times and the events that are to take place 
upon the earth before the end. The apostle Peter exhorts 
us to the study in these words: 

''We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto 
ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in 
a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in 
your hearts." 2 Peter 1 : 19. 




THE GREAT IMAGE 



**He that revealeth secrets maketh known to 
, thee what shall come to pass." Dan. 2 : 29. 




DANIEL INTERPRETING 
NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S DREAM 



'Thou, O kingj sawest, and behold a 
great image." Dan. 2:31. 



PROPHETIC OUTLINE OF THE WORLD'S 

HISTORY 

THE PROPHECY OF DANIEL 2 

"There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and 
maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be 
in the latter days/' 

• In a dream by night the Lord gave to Nebuchadnezzar, 
king of Babylon, a clear historical outline of the course of 
world empire to the end of time and the coming of the eternal 
kingdom. 

The king was a thoughtful monarch; and having reached 
the height of his power, he was one night meditating upon 
*Vhat should come to pass hereafter." Not for his sake 
alone, but for the enlightenment and instruction of men in 
all time, the Lord answered the wondering question of the 
king's meditation by giving him the dream. "He that re- 
vealeth secrets," said Daniel the prophet, "maketh known 
to thee what shall come to pass." 

39 



Prophetic Outline of the World's History 41 

And that we may know at the beginning that there is 
nothing fanciful and uncertain about this great historic 
outline reaching to the end of the world, we note first the 
assurance with which the prophet closed his interpretation: 
"The dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure." 

The details of the dream had been taken from the king's 
mind, while conviction as to the wondrous import of it re- 
mained. This was in God's providence, to show the folly 
of the worldly-wise men of Babylon, and to bring before the 
king the prophet of the Lord with a divine message. The 
prophet Daniel, under the inspiration of God, brought his 
dream again to the king's mind: 

''Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This 
great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before 
thee; and the form thereof was terrible. 

"This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his 
arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, 
his feet part of iron and part of clay. 

"Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, 
which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and 
clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the 
clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces to- 
gether, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing 
floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was 
found for them: and the stone that smote the image became 
a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. '* 

The prophet next declared the interpretation. And now 
follows the history of the world in miniature. 

Babylon 

"Thou, king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven 
hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. 
And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the 
field and the fowls of the heaven hath He given into thine 
hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art 
this head of gold." 




THE HANDWRITING 
ON THE WALL 



"Thy kingdom is divided, and given to 
the Medes and Persians." Dan. 5:28. 



Prophetic Outline of the World^ii History 43 

The parts of the image, then, of various metals, from 
head to feet, represented successive empires, beginning with 
Babylon; and the kingdom of Babylon, represented by Neb- 
uchadnezzar, was the head of gold. 

History shows how fitly the golden head symbolizes the 
Babylonian kingdom. Long before, the prophet Isaiah had 
described it as 'Hhe glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the 
Chaldees' excellency." Isa. 13:19. And now, in Nebuchad- 
nezzar's day, it was the golden age of the Babylonian king- 
dom. No such gorgeous city as its capital ever before stood 
on earth. And Nebuchadnezzar was the great leader of its 
conquests, and the beautifier and builder of its walls and 
palaces. ''For the astonishment of men I have built this 
house," one tablet reads; and hundreds repeat the story. 

"Those portals 
for the astonishment of multitudes of 

people 
with beauty I adorned. 
In order that the battle storm 
to Imgur-Bel 

the wall of Babylon might 
not reach; 

what no king before me 
had done." — East India House Inscription. 

Thus Nebuchadnezzar's records of stone today repeat the 
proud boast faithfully reported in the Scripture, "Is not this 
great Babylon, that I have built?" Dan. 4:30. To the 
king it seemed that such a city could never fall. One in- 
scription reads: 

"Thus I completely made strong the defenses of Babylon. May it 
last forever." — Rawlinson, '^Fourth Monarchy," Appendix A. 

Medo-Persia 

But the prophet Daniel, proceeding with the divine inter- 
pretation, interrupted all such proud thoughts with the dec- 
laration, ''After thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to 
thee." 



44 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

Now the look was forward into the future. And the word 
came to pass. Babylon's decline was swift after Nebuchad- 
nezzar's death. Daniel the prophet himself Hved to interpret 
the handwriting on the wall at Belshazzar's feast: 

''God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. . . . 
Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting. 
. . . Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and 
Persians." Dan. 5:26-28. 

The breast and arms of silver, in the great image, repre- 
sented the Medo-Persian kingdom, which followed the Baby- 
lonian, ''inferior" to it in brilliancy and grandeur, as silver 
is inferior to gold. Medo-Persia, however, enlarged the bor- 
ders of the world empire; and the names of Cyrus and Darius 
are written among the mightiest conquerors of history. 

But the prophet does not stop to dwell upon the gran- 
deur of fleeting earthly kingdoms. The interpretation hastens 
on to reach the setting up of a kingdom that shall not pass 
away. Following Medo-Persia, a third power was to rise, 

Grecia 

"And another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear 
rule over all the earth." 

The "third kingdom" afte^r Babylon was Grecia, which 
overthrew the empire of the Medes and Persians. And 
Grecia's dominion fulfilled the specifications of the prophecy, 
which indicated a yet wider expansion of empire. Its sway 
was to be over "all the earth," said Daniel the prophet, fore- 
telling its history. Arrian, the Greek historian, writing after- 
ward, said that Alexander of Greece seemed truly "lord of 
all the earth;" and he adds: 

"I am persuaded there was no nation, city, nor people then m. being 
whither his name did not reach; for which reason, whatever origin he 
might boast of, or claim to himseK, there seems to me to have been some 
divine hand presiding both over his birth and actions." — '^ History of the 
Expedition of Alexander the Great," book 7, chap. 30. 

The sides of brass in the great image represented Gre- 
cia, the brazen metal itself being a fitting symbol of those 



Prophetic Outline of the WorliVs History 45 

*' brazen-mailed" Greeks, celebrated in ancient poetry and 
song, 

"Among the foremost, armed in glittering brass." 

A Power Rising in the West 

While Grecians supremacy under Alexander was disputed 
by none, there was a power rising in the West that was soon 
to enter the lists for the prize of world dominion. 

Some of the ancient writers say that at the time of his 
death Alexander had in mind to push westward to strike down 
the growing power of the city of Rome, of which he had heard. 
Plutarch says that this man Alexander, 

"who shot like a star, with incredible swiftness, from the rising to the 
setting sun, was meditating to bring the luster of his arms into Italy. 
. . . He had heard of the Roman power in Italy." — ''Morals,'' chap, on 
*' Fortune of the Romans," par. 13. 

Lucan, the ancient Roman poet, repeats the thought: 

"Driven headlong on by Fate's resistless force, 
Through Asia's realms he took his dreadful course: 
His ruthless sword laid human nature waste, 
And desolation followed where he passed. . . . 

"Ev'n to the utmost west he would have gone, 
Where Tethys' lap receives the setting sun." 

— " Pharsalia." 

But in the prime of his years, Alexander was cut down, 
and Rome had yet more time in which to develop its strength 
preparatory to the deciding contest for the mastery of all the 
world. Sure it is that after Grecia, there followed the Roman 
Empire, the strongest and mightiest and most crushing of 
them all. This fourth universal empire the prophet proceeded 
to describe, as represented by the legs of iron in Nebuchad- 
nezzar's dream of the great image. 

Rome 

"The fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch 
as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron 
that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise." 



46 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

How appropriately the iron of the image fits the character 
of the fourth great empire! Gibbon, the historian, calls it 
"the iron monarchy of Rome." It broke in pieces the king- 
doms, subduing all, just as prophecy had declared so long 
before. As iron is strongest of the common metals, so accord- 
ing to the prophecy — ''as iron that breaketh all these" — 
this fourth kingdom was to be more powerful than any before 
it. Strabo, the geographer, who hved in the days of Tiberius 
Caesar, said, 

"The Romans have surpassed (in power) all former rulers of whom 
we have any record." — "Geography," hook 17, chap. 3. 

Hippolytus, bishop and martyr, who lived in Rome in 

the third century, — under the ''iron monarchy," — wrote thus 

of this prophecy: 

''Already the iron rules; already it subdues and breaks all in pieces; 
already it brings all the unwilling into subjection; already we see these 
things ourselves." — "Treatise on Christ and Antichrist," sec. 33. 

Hippolytus also saw clearly from the prophecy that the 
empire of his day would be divided, and he wrote of the king- 
doms that were "yet to rise" out of it. For Daniel's inter- 
pretation explained clearly the meaning of the mingling of 
clay with the iron in the feet and toes of the great image. 

The Kingdoms of Moderh Europe 

"Whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' 
clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there 
shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou 
sawest the iron -mixed with miry clay. 

"And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of 
clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. 

"And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, 
they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they 
shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed 
with clay." 

"The kingdom shall be divided." So declared the prophet 
of God. In the height of its power, Rome scouted the 



Prophetic Outline of the World's History 47 

thought that so mighty a fabric could ever be broken up. 
Horace sang in his *'Odes/' 

"How, added to a conquered world, 
Euphrates 'bates his tide, 
And Huns, beyond our frontiers hurled, 
O'er straitened deserts ride. 

"The Goths beyond the sea may plot, 
The wariike Basques may plan; 
Friend, never heed them! vex thee not; 
For this our mortal span 
Of little wants." 

— Book 2, Harrises Translation. 

But the words were written on the ancient parchment in 
the days of Babylon, *'The kingdom shall be divided;" and 
true to the word of the prophet, the Roman Empire fell apart 
with the mixture of nations and peoples that swept into it. 
The elements did not hold together, even as the mixture of 
iron and clay in the image did not cleave together. Broken 
up by the invasions of fresh nations from the north, the West- 
ern Empire was divided into lesser kingdoms, out of which 
have grown the modern nations of western Europe. 

Not one word in the outline of the prophecy thus far has 
failed of fulfilment. These modern kingdoms growing out 
of divided Rome have never been reunited. *'They shall 
mingle themselves with the seed of men," said the prophecy. 
Nearly all the reigning houses of Europe today are related by 
intermarriage; the prophecy said it would be so; but ''they 
shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with 
clay." So we see it. No statesman, no master of legions, has 
been able to join these nations together again in one great 
empire. Charles V had the thought in mind, some think. 
Napoleon dreamed of doing it. But it was not to be. Never- 
more was there to be one universal monarchy. 

We may know that as surely as the course of world empire 
has followed the exact outline of the prophecy put on the in- 
spired record in the days of Babylon of old, just so surely the 



48 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

specifications of the closing portion of the outUne will be ful- 
filled. 

The fourth great kingdom was to be divided. Rome was 
the fourth empire: it was divided. The kingdoms of the di- 
vided empire are acting their part before our eyes today. 

The Next Great Event 

And what next? That is the question for us. Now the 
prophetic outline that began with ancient Babylon touches the 
things of our own day. The word spoken before Nebuchad- 
nezzar so long ago is now spoken especially to us: 

*'In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set 
up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the king- 
dom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in 
pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for- 
ever. 

''Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of 
the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the 
iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great 
God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass 
hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation 
thereof sure.*' 

''In the days of these kings," — these kingdoms of our 
own time, — the next great world-changing event is to be the 
coming of Christ to begin the setting up of his everlasting 
kingdom. That is the grand climax toward which all the 
course of history has been tending. At last the end is to come. 

"Down in the feet of iron and of clay, 
Weak and divided, soon to pass away; 
What will the next great, glorious drama be? — 
Christ and His coming, and eternity." 

As the stone, cut out of the mountain "without hands," 
smote the image, so that all its parts, representative of earthly 
dominion, were ground to dust and blown away, so Christ's 
coming kingdom, set up "without hands," by no human 
power, but by the power of the eternal God, will end all 



Prophetic Outline of the World's History 



49 



earthly dominion and bring the utter destruction of sin and 

sinners out of the earth. 

''The dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure." 
Then may all eyes well be turned toward the next great 

step foretold in the prophetic outline — the coming of Christ's 

glorious everlasting kingdom, which shall not pass away. 

"Look for the waymarks as you journey on, 
Look for the waymarks, passing one by one, 
Down through the ages, past the kingdoms four, — 
Where are we standing? Look the waymarks o'er." 




PHOTOGRAPH BY MISSIONARY W C. ISING 

Ruins of the Palace of Nebuchadnezzar, in which was the hall of Belshazzar's Feast. 




THE ASCENSION 
OF CHRIST 



COPYRIGHT. STANDARD PUB, CO 



This same Jesus . . . shall' 
so come in like manner." Acts 
1:11. 




THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY INTO 
JERUSALEM 



Behold, thy King cometh, . . . lowly, 
and riding upon an ass." Zech. 9:9. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 



''Unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second 
time without sin mi to salvation." Heb. 9:28. 

Too often the second coming of Christ is looked upon 
simply as a doctrine. It is, however, more than a doctrine 
merely to be believed; it is an impending event, something 
that is to take place on earth, and the most stupendous, all- 
transcendent event for the world since Christ came the first 
time to die on Calvary for the sins of men. 

This second coming of Christ, like His first coming, has 
been the theme of divine prophecy from the beginning. This 
was emphasized by the apostle Peter in his second recorded 
sermon. He pressed upon the people of Jerusalem the fact 
that the things ''which God before had showed by the mouth 
of all His prophets, that Christ should suffer" (Acts 3:18), 
had been fulfilled to the letter before their eyes. Not a word 
had failed. Just so, he said, all that the prophets had spoken 
of His second coming would be fulfilled: 

"He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached 
unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of 



52 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth 
of all His holy prophets since the world began." Acts 3 : 20, 21. 

The Promise of His Coming 

As iniquity began to abound, God sent a message to the 
antediluvian world, declaring that Christ's coming in glory 
would end the reign of sin: 

^^ Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, 
sajdng, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His 
saints, to execute judgment upon all," Jude 14, 15. 

The promise of Christ's coming was the ''blessed hope" 
in the patriarchal age. In Job's dark hour of trial his heart 
clung to the promise, and he was kept from despair: 

''I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall 
stand at the latter day upon the earth: . . . whom I shall see 
for myseK, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another." 
Job 19:25-27. 

The psalmist sang of it: 

"Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire 
shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous 
round about Him." Ps. 50:3. 

And the prophets of later times were unceasing^ moved 
upon to talk of the glory of that coming, of events preced- 
ing it, and of the preparation for it. 

"I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which 
shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make men- 
tion of the Lord, keep not silence." ''Behold, the Lord hath 
proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter 
of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold. His reward is 
with Him, and His work before Him." Isa. 62: 6, 11. 

The message of His coming is to be heralded to the ends 
of the earth; for it is "good tidings of great joy" to every 
one who will receive it. 

On that last night with His disciples before the crucifixion, 
when His heart was sorrowful even unto death, as the bur- 



The Second Coming of Christ 53 

den of all our iniquities was about to be laid upon Him, Christ's 
love for His own made precious to Him the thought of His 
second coming to gather them home at last, safe from all sin 
and trouble; and He said: 

''Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, be- 
lieve also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions: 
if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a 
place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will 
come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, 
there ye may be also." John 14: 1-3. 

In that assurance the heart finds rest. O the preciousness 
of the promise, ''I will come again"! ''I am coming for you," 
is the cheering message. ''Yes, Lord," we reply, "we will 
wait, and watch, and be ready, by Thy grace." 

The Manner of His Coming 

Christ's second coming is to be visible to all the world. 
There is to be nothing secret or mystical about it. The reve- 
lator says: 

"Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see 
Him." Rev. 1:7. 

Christ Himself described the scene to His disciples as it 
will appear to the eyes of aU: 

"As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth 
even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of 
man be." Matt. 24:27. "Then shall they see the Son of 
man coming in the clouds with great power and glory." Mark 
13:26. 

The day of the Lord — the close of probation, the initial 
outpouring of the judgments of God — will come "as a thief 
in the night," but Christ's personal appearing will be visible 
to all. The heavens will open, the earth quake, the trump 
of God resound, and such glory as mortal eye has never seen 
will burst upon the world when He comes as King of kings 
and Lord of lords. 



54 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



"He comes not an infant in Bethlehem born, 
He comes not to lie in a manger; 
He comes not agaia to be treated with scorn, 

He comes not a shelterless stranger; 
He comes not to Gethsemane, 

To weep and sweat blood in the garden; 
He comes not to die on the tree, 
To purchase for rebels a pardon. 
Oh, no; glory, bright glory, 
Environs Him now." 




THE TRANSFIGURATION A 
TYPE OF HIS COMING 



Behold, there appeared unto them Moses 
and Elias talking with Him." Matt. 17:3. 



**This Same Jesus" 

The Lord would have His children understand that this 
One who comes in power and glory is the same. Saviour of 
men who once walked by blue Galilee. As the disciples were 
watching their Saviour, and ours, ascending bodily into heaven 
from Olivet, until ''a cloud received Him out of their sight," 
suddenly two angels stood by them, who said: 



The Second Coming of Christ 



55 



"Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? 
this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, 
shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into 
heaven." Acts 1:9, 11. 




CHRIST SET AT NAUGHT 
BY THE ROMANS 



Behold your King!" John 19:14. 



"This same Jesus"! It was the loving Friend and Elder 
Brother, Son of man as well as Son of God, who was passing 
from their sight. He will come back the "same Jesus," 
though in glory indescribable, having "all the holy angels 
with Him." 

The prophet Habakkuk thus described Christ's glorious 
appearing, as it was represented to him in vision: 

"His glory covered the heavens, 
And the earth was full of His praise. 
And His brightness was as the light; 
He had rays coming forth from His hand; 
And there was the hiding of His power." 

Hab. 3:3, 4, A. R. V. 



56 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

Surely it is the "same Jesus/^ and the mark of the cruel nails 
is the shining badge of His power to save. 

"I shall know Him 
By the print of the nails in His hands." 

As the redeemed see Him who was crucified for them com- 
ing in glory, they will cry, "Lo, this is our God; we have 
waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord; we 
have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His 
salvation. '^ Isa. 25:9. 

But that day will be a day of darkness as well as of light. 
The unready, the unrepentant, will realize too late that in 
rejecting Christ's pardon and love and sacrifice, they have 
rejected the only means by which they might have been pre- 
pared to meet the coming King, before whose face no sin can 
endure. "Every eye shall see Him," the apostle says, and 
he describes the terror of that day to the unprepared: 

"The kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich 
men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every 
bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and 
in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and 
rocks. Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sit- 
teth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the 
great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to 
stand?" Rev. 6:15-17. 

The scenes of that great day are so beyond human com- 
prehension that it is diflicult to reaHze that such a time is 
actually before us. 

"Then, O my Lord, prepare 
My soul for that great day." 

The Purpose of His Coining 

The Scriptures make very clear the purpose of Christ^s 
second coming and the events of that great day. It has been 
the hope of the children of God through all the ages. The 
apostle Paul calls it the "blessed hope." 



The Second Coming of Christ 57 

"The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared 
to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly- 
lusts, we should Hve soberly, righteously, and godly, in this 
present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious 
appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." 
Titus 2: 11-13. 

The saints of God have fallen asleep in death with their 
faith reaching forward to Christ's glorious appearing. So the 
veteran apostle fell, with eyes upon ''that day." 

"1 am now ready to be offered, and the time of my de- 
parture is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have fin- 
ished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is 
laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the 
righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to 
me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing." 
2 Tim. 4:6-8. 

Christ's second coming is the grand chmax of the plan of 
salvation. Not till then are the children of God ushered into 
the eternal kingdom. Then the crowns of life are bestowed, 
and the saved all go together through the gates into the city 
— patriarch and prophet, apostle and reformer, and the child 
of God of this last generation. Of the ancient worthies it is 
written : 

''These all, having obtained a good report through faith, 
received not the promise: God having provided some better 
thing for us, that they without us should not be made per- 
fect." Heb. 11:39, 40. 

What a glorious day it will be when the ransomed of all 
the ages, march in together through the gates into the city! 

It is to take His children to their eternal home that Christ 
comes the second time. This was His promise to the disciples: 

"I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare 
a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto My- 
self; that where I am, there ye may be also." John 14: 2, 3. 

Not in detail, but in their general order, let us follow the 
events of that great day. 




CHRIST COMING IN GLORY 



"The Son of man shall come in His glory, 

and all the holy angels with Him." Matt. 
25:31. 



The Second Coming of Christ 59 

The Prelude to His Coming 

as the revelator saw it and heard it in a vision of the last 
day: 

** There came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, 
from the throne, saying. It is done. And there were voices, 
and thimders, and hghtnings; and there was a great earth- 
quake, such as was not siace men were upon the earth, . . . 
and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in 
remembrance before God/' Rev. 16: 17-19. 

"The heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled to- 
gether; and every mountain and island were moved out of 
their places." Rev. 6: 14. 

His Glorious Appearing 

Then bursts upon the world the glory of our Saviour's 
coming: 

*'Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: 
and then shall aU the tribes of the earth mourn, and they 
shall see the Son of man comiag in the clouds of heaven with 
power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with 
a great sound of a trumpet." Matt. 24:30, 31. 

''I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud 
one sat like unto the Son of man, having on His head a golden 
crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel 
came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that 
sat on the cloud, Thrust in Thy sickle, and reap: for the 
time is come for Thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth 
is ripe." Rev. 14: 14, 15. 

The Resurrection of the Just, and the Translation 
of the Living Righteous 

The time to reap has come, and the wheat is gathered at 
last into the garner of the Lord: 

"We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a 
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the 



60 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorrupt- 
ible, and we shall be changed." 1 Cor. 15:51, 52. 

*'He shall send His angels mth a great sound of a trumpet, 
and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, 
from one end of heaven to the other.'' Matt. 24:31. 

^'This we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we 
which are aUve and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall 




THE EMPTY TOMB 



Christ the first fruits; afterward they 
that are Christ's at His coming." 1 
Cor. 15:23. 



not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself 
shaU descend from heaven wdth a shout, with the voice of the 
Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ 
shall rise first: then we which are ahve and remain shall be 
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord 
in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Where- 
fore comfort one another with these words." 1 Thess. 4: 15-18. 
The righteous dead are raised to life as the trump of God 
sounds and the voice of the Archangel calls to His sleeping 
saints, and the liviag righteous are transformed from mortality 



The Second Coming of Christ 61 

to immortality. Then all together, with the escort of the 
angels, they follow the Saviour to the heavenly mansions that 
He has prepared in the city of God. 

The Destruction of the Wicked 

Before the glorious majesty of the coming King no sin can 
endure; for true it is that ''our God is a consuming fire" — 
now, in the day of His mercy, consuming sin out of the heart 
that by faith approaches the throne of grace, but in that 
day consuming the unrepentant sinner with his sin. 

''Where will the sinner hide in that day, in that day? 
Where will the sinner hide in that day? 
It will be in vain to call, 
'Ye mountains on us fall!' 
For His hand will find out all in that day." 

It is the great day long foretold by seer and prophet. 

Again let us read the description of what it will mean to 
the unsaved to see Christ coming in glory; for the terror of 
that day must warn us now to keep within the refuge of the 
Saviour's loving grace: 

"The Idngs of the earth, and the great men, and the rich 
men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every 
bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and 
in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains 
and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that 
sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for 
the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to 
stand?" Eev. 6:15-17. 

The same glory that transforms the righteous is a con- 
suming fire to those who have rejected Christ's salvation: 

''Then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord 
shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy 
with the brightness of His coming." 2 Thess. 2:8. 

"When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with 
His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them 



62 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord 
Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting de- 
struction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory 
of His power." 2 Thess. 1:7-9. 

The Climax of Human History 

Thus the second coming of Christ brings the resurrection 
and translation of the righteous, the death of the wicked, and 
the end of the world. The resurrection of the wicked does 
not then take place, but only that of the just; save for some 
of the wicked dead v/ho had a special part in warring against 
Christ, — "they also v/hich pierced Him" (Rev. 1:7). These 
are raised to see His coming, necessarily to fall again before 
the consuming glory of His presence. 

The righteous are taken to reign with Christ in the heav- 
enly city for a thousand years, and during the same period 
the earth hes in desolation and chaos, iminhabited by man, a 
dark abyss, the dreary prison house of Satan. Of the two 
resurrections, first of the just and then of the unjust, we 
are told: 

"They [the righteous] lived and reigned with Christ a 
thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again 
until the thousand years were finished. This is the first res- 
urrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first 
resurrection : on such the second death hath no power." Rev. 
20:4-6. 

It is at the end of the thousand years that the resurrec- 
tion of the wicked takes place. Then the city of God de- 
scends, "the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from 
God out of heaven," and the wicked come forth to condemna- 
tion and the second death, from which there is no waking. 

"Now is the Accepted Time" 

Now is the day of salvation, when by Christ's grace we 
may prepare for that great day. To be found among His 
redeemed ones in that day will be of infinitely greater worth 



The Second Coming of Christ 63 

than anything this world can give, of pleasure, or possessions, 
or honor. Nothing will count then but the blessed hope. 

Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, found the personal Sav- 
iour in the days of the Methodist revival in England. All 
her wealth and all her social influence were devoted to Christ, 
even though titled friends took umbrage at her close asso- 
ciation with the poor and the humble who gave heed to the 
message of the hour, and pressed into the kingdom. She 
wrote of her joy in being numbered with the children of God: 

"I love to meet among them now, 
Before Thy gracious throne to bow, 

Though weakest of them aU; 
Nor can I bear the piercing thought. 
To have my worthless name left out, 

When Thou for them shalt call. 

'Prevent, prevent it by Thy grace! 
Be Thou, dear Lord, my hiding place 

In that expected day. 
Thy pardoning voice, O let me hear. 
To still each unbelieving fear, 
Nor let me fall, I pray." 

One night, at a royal ball, the Prince of Wales asked a 
titled lady where the Countess of Huntingdon was. "Oh, I 
suppose she is praying with some of her beggars somewhere!" 
was the flippant answer. "Ah," said the crown prince, "in 
the .last day I think I should be glad to hold the hem of Lady 
Huntingdon's mantle." True it is that the greatest gift of 
grace now, as it will be then, is to be numbered among the 
obedient children of God. 

"Let me among Thy saints be found, 
Whene'er the Archangel's trump shaU sound, 

To see Thy smiling face; 
Then joyfully Thy praise I'll sing, 
While heaven's resounding mansions ring 

With shouts of endless grace." 




CHRIST ANSWERING HIS 
DISCIPLES' QUESTIONS 



When shall these things be? and what 
shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of 
the end of the world ? " Matt. 24 : 3. 




THE DESTRUCTION OF THE 
TEMPLE FORETOLD 



There shall not be left here one stone 
upon another, that shall not be thrown 
down." Matt. 24:2. 



SIGNS OF THE APPROACHING END 

OUR SAVIOUR'S GREAT PROPHECY 
Part I 

Christ had spoken of the coming desolation of the sacred 
temple at Jerusalem. The disciples were astonished. ''Mas- 
ter, see," said one, ''what manner of stones and what build- 
ings are here!" The Saviour replied: 

"Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left 
one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." 
Mark 13:2. 

**What Shall be the Sign ?" 

As soon as they were alone on the Mount of Olives over- 
looking the city, the disciples came to Jesus, saying: 

"Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be 
the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?" Matt. 
24:3. 

Replying to this question, the Saviour spoke first of the 
fall of Jerusalem; He foretold in a sentence the experiences of 
s 65 



66 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

His church through dark ages to follow; then He described 
the events of the latter days, the signs showing His second 
advent near at hand; and, finally. He pictured the scenes of 
His own glorious appearing in the clouds of heaven. The 
fullest record of the discourse is found in the twenty-fourth 
chapter of Matthew. 

A Striking Parallel 

The first portion of the prophetic discourse (verses 4-14) 
deals with general conditions that were to prevail both in the 
last days of the Jewish state, and on a yet larger scale in the 
course of history leading to the last days of the world. There 
was so close a parallel between these times that Christ, in one 
description, answered both questions asked, When shall these 
things come upon Jerusalem? and, What shall be the signs 
of the end of the world? 

The prophetic word foretold the rise of false Christs, the 
coming of wars, famines, and earthquakes in ''divers places." 
The behevers saw these things fulfilled in that generation be- 
fore Jerusalem fell; but as we read the prophecy, we see the 
wider apphcation and yet larger fulfilment through the course 
of history since that day, these calamities increasing in the 
earth as the end draws near. Before the end of the Jewish 
state, the believers carried the gospel to all the known world 
of their day. (See Col. 1 : 23.) In these latter days we are 
seeing the yet wilder proclamation of the gospel, as foretold 
in the fourteenth verse, ''This gospel of the kingdom shall 
be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; 
and then shall the end come." 

The Last Days of Jerusalem 

We may note briefly some of the events of Jerusalem's 
last days. Christ had forewarned the believers: 

"Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall 
come in My name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive 
many." 



Signs of the Approaching End 67 

Having rejected the true Christ, the nation was open to 
deception by the false. We catch just a gUmpse of the fulfil- 
ment in the book of Acts; in secular history the full story is 
told. Ridpath says: 

"Never was a people so turbulent, so excited with expectation of a 
deliverer who should restore the ancient kingdom, so fired with bigotry 
and fanaticism, as were the wretched Jews of this period. One Christ 
came after another. Revolt was succeeded by revolt, instigated by some 
pseudo-prophet or pretended king." — "History of the World," Vol. 7, p. 849 
{Part III, chap. 19). 

During the Saviour's fife and ministry a divine hand had 

to a great extent held the elements of violence in check, but 

as the light was rejected more and more, the spirit of evil 

came to hold sway unrestrained. Dr. Mears well describes 

the changed conditions in these words: 

"The narrative of the evangelists presents a tranquil scene, a suc- 
cession of attractive pictures, in striking contrast to the bloody and tu- 
multuous events which crowd each other in the pages of Josephus." — 
''From Exile to Overthrow," pp. 256, 257. 

Thus the events led rapidly on toward the day of Jeru- 
salem's fall, so long foretold by the prophets. 

The Sign to the Believers 

The disciples had asked for a sign, and Christ gave them 
a token by which they might know when the time to flee 
from Jerusalem had come. Here Luke's Gospel gives the 
fullest record: 

''When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then 
know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them 
which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let them which 
are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are 
in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of 
vengeance, that all things which are written may be ful- 
filled." Luke 21:20-22. 

The unbelieving in Jerusalem and Judea could not con- 
ceive that their city, so long protected and favored of God, 
could be destroyed. Not even the appearance of the Roman 



Signs of the Approaching End 69 

armies could shake their blind self-confidence. But at the 
first sight of the encircling armies, the Christians knew that 
the time for flight was at hand. But how to flee was the ques- 
tion, with the compassing lines drawn close about the city. 
Moreover, the Zealots, the furious war party in power, would 
be little likely to allow any number to pass out to the Roman 
forces. 

Just here God's providence made a way of escape. Ces- 
tius, the Roman commander, after having partially under- 
mined one of the temple walls, suddenly decided to defer push- 
ing the attack. "He retired from the city," says Josephus, 
"without any reason in the world." (See "Wars," book 2, 
chap. 19.) And the Zealots flew out after the retiring Ro- 
mans, furiously attacking the rear guards. 

Then those watching Christians knew that the time for 
quick, flight had come, according to Christ's prophecy uttered 
many years before. They fled out of the city and out of the 
country round about. 

Through all the years, Christ's prophecy had exhorted 
them, "Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither 
on the Sabbath day." Matt. 24:20. The prayer was an- 
swered, for it was in the autumn and on a week day that the 
flight was made.* Watching for the sign, and instantly obey- 
ing, they were delivered. 

Thus it was that when the Romans returned later to the 
siege, never to give up till the city fell, none of the Christians 
were overwhelmed in its destruction. Even so are we to 
watch the signs of our own times, that we may escape those 
things that are coming upon the earth, and be ready to "stand 
before the Son of man." 



* It was in the autumn that the army of Cestius closed in upon Jerusalem. 
According to the careful record of Graetz, the Jewish historian, it was evi- 
dently on a Wednesday that the Roman army retired, pursued by all the forces 
of the city. This was the instant for the flight of the (Christians. Next day 
" the Zealots, shouting exultant war songs, returned to Jerusalem (8th Octo- 
ber)." — "History of the Jcivs/' Vol. II, i). 268. The day before was the time 
for unhindered flight. 



70 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



The Prophetic Word Fulfilled 

Christ had declared that the temple, the pride of the na- 
tion, would be utterly destroyed. In the last siege, the Ro- 
man commander tried to spare the magnificent pile. When 
the Jews made it their chief fortress, because of its massive 
strength, Titus remonstrated with them, saying: 




/:.! wi'i 



A PANEL FROM THF 
ARCH OF TITUS 



Showing the golden candlestick and other 

sacred vessels of the temple being carried 

triumph through the streets of Rome. 



"If you will but change the place whereon you fight, no Roman 
shall either come near your sanctuary, or offer any affront to it; nay, I 
will endeavor to preserve you your holy house, whether you will or not." 
— Josephus, "Wars of the Jews," book 6, chap. 2. 

But the prophecy was fulfilled to the letter. The people 
seemed possessed with fury. The hardened Roman pagans 
were astonished at their suicidal rashness. Titus's efforts to 
save the temple failed, and it went down in ruin, as Christ 
had foretold. 



Signs of the Approaching End 71 

The disciples of Christ had called His attention to the im- 
mense blocks of stone that composed the temple walls. ''See, 
what manner of stones," one said. When Titus examined 
these same stones, after the fall of the city, he is said to have 
declared : 

"We have certainly had God for our assistant in this war, and it was 
no other than God who ejected the Jews out of these fortifications." * 
— Id., hook 6, chap. 9. 

Rather, we would say, in the light of Scripture teaching, 
the destruction that came upon the city was but the fruit of 
its own way. God's guardian care had long protected the 
city of David. When His protection was finally thrust aside 
and the people put themselves in the power of the great de- 
stroyer, divine justice could no longer save the city from the 
judgments that were bound to fall upon persistent transgres- 
sion against light. 

The lesson is one of those written ''for our admonition 
upon whom the ends of the world are come." Jerusalem, in 
that generation of great light and high privilege, fell because 
it knew not the time of its visitation. Still Christ's sad la- 
ment bears its warning to the ears of men: "If thou hadst 
known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which 
belong unto thy peace!" Luke 19:42. 

Part II 

Having foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, and given 
to the believers signs by which they might find deliverance 
in the day of its overthrow, Christ yet more fully answered 
the second part of the disciples' question, "What shall be the 
sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?" Matt. 
24:3. 



* Apollonius, the friend and counselor of Titus, left a similar testimony to 
the latter's conviction that there was something supernatural about the forces 
of destruction let loose upon Jerusalem : " After Titus had taken Jerusalem, 
and when the country all round was filled with corpses, the neighboring races 
offered him a crown ; but he disclaimed any such honor to himself, saying that 
it was not he himself that had accomplished this exploit, but that he had 
merely lent his arms to God. who had so manifested His wrath." — Fhilos- 
tratus, " Life of Apollonius," book 6, chap. 29. 




THE CATACOMBS 
NEAR ROME 



In these underground passages persecuted 
Christians found a hiding place, held their 
services, and buried their dead. 



Signs of the Approaching End 73 

The Period of Tribulation 

Quickly He passed to the events of the latter days. But 
first He sketched, in a few words, the tribulations through 
which His church was to pass during the intervening centu- 
ries. Daniel the prophet had written of this experience, fore- 
telling the long period during which the papal power was to 
''wear out the saints of the Most High." Dan. 7:25. Of 
these times, Christ said in His prophetic discourse: 

''Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since 
the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 
And except those days should be shortened, there should no 
flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be 
shortened.'' Matt. 24:21, 22. 

It is evident that Christ referred to the time of tribulation 
foretold by Daniel, not to the trials attending the flight of 
the Christians from Jerusalem, for their flight was a deliver- 
ance of the elect from trial. However much the weak ma}^ 
have suffered temporarily in fleeing from their homes, the 
great suffering of that time came upon the unbelieving, who 
had no shelter. 

This prophecy given by our Saviour presents the picture 
of a long-continued persecution of His own elect, and fore- 
tells the shortening of the allotted time. God was to inter- 
vene in some special way to save His people. And it was 
even so. The elect did suffer all through the centuries of 
intolerance, until the rise of the Reformation and the spread- 
ing abroad of God's Word broke the power of ecclesiasticism, 
thus shortening the days of bitter tribulation. 

The End Drawing Near 

According to Daniel's further prophecy, the period of trial 
and persecution was to reach "even to the time of the end." 
Dan. 11:35. Naturally, then, we should look for the signs 
of the latter days to begin to appear following these days of 
tribulation. And so we find the next words of Christ's dis- 
course introducing the topic of His second coming. From 



74 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

now on the prophetic outline deals with events leading down 
to the end of the age. 

First the Saviour utters a warning against false ideas con- 
cerning His second coming. That no theories of a secret 
coming or of a mystic coming might deceive the unwary, 
He says in plain words: 

''If any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or 
there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and 
false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; in- 
somuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very 
elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they 
shall say unto you. Behold, He is in the desert; go not forth: 
behold, He is in the secret chambers; beheve it not. For as 
the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto 
the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." 
Matt. 24:23-27. 

Today we see the need of this warning. Some of the most 
subtle deceptions are found in the teaching that Christ has 
already come, secretly, or that He comes in the chamber of 
death, or in the spirituaHstic seance. Against all these errors 
we are forewarned, as well as against any agencies that may 
come showing marvelous signs and wonders. The close of 
human probation, the coming of the daj^ of God, will be as a 
thief in the night; and Christ's coming itself will overtake the 
unwatchful all unprepared. Nevertheless, when He comes, 
"every eye shall see Him," and all the glory of heaven will 
burst upon a quaking world. 

Signs in the Heavens and the Earth 

Now the Saviour's outline of prophecy presents the signs 
which were to show when the coming of the Lord was near. 
Referring again to the days of tribulation foretold by the 
prophet Daniel, Christ says: 

"Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the 
sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her hght, and 
the stars shaU fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens 



Signs of the Approaching End 75 

shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of 
man in heaven." Matt. 24:29, 30. 

In Luke's record of the same prophetic discourse, addi- 
tional signs are given, describing conditions in the earth as 
Christ's coming draws near. His account reads: 

''There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and 
in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with per- 
plexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing 
them for fear, and for looking after those things which are 
coming on the earth : for the powers of heaven shall be ehaken. 
And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud 
with power and great glory. And when these things begin 
to come to pass, then look up, and hft up your heads; for 
your redemption draweth nigh." Luke 21: 25-28. 

Yet again, the prophet John, in the Revelation, foretells 
these signs in the sun and moon and stars, as they were pre- 
sented to him in a vision of the last days. But his record 
shows that this series of signs was to be preceded by a great 
earthquake. He describes the order of events as follows: 

''I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, 
there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as 
sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the 
stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth 
her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind." 
Rev. 6:12, 13. 

In these scriptures four great signs of Christ's approach- 
ing advent are listed for our study, as follows: 

1. The great earthquake. 

2. The darkening of the sun and moon. 

3. The falling of the stars. 

4. Distress of nations, and other signs. 

The Time When the Signs Begin 

Christ's prophecy points out approximately the time 
when the first of the signs that He gave, the darkening of 
the sun, should appear, — 'immediately after the tribulation 



76 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

of those days." And the ''great earthquake" of John's vi- 
sion was to precede this sign in the heavens. 

The Reformation of the sixteenth century began to cut 
short the days of tribulation; but some countries shut out 
the hberahzing influences of the Word of God, and there the 
persecution continued. 

Even as late as near the end of the seventeenth century, 
in 1685, France revoked the Edict of Nantes, that had 
granted toleration, and persecution raged as of old. The 
church was driven again to the desert. Speaking of the early 
decades of the eighteenth century, Kurtz says: 

''In France the persecution of the Huguenots continued. . . . The 
'pastors of the desert' performed their duties at the risk of their lives." 
—''Church History," Vol. Ill, p. 88. 

There was severe persecution of the Moravians in Austria, 
in these times, many of the persecuted finding refuge in Sax- 
ony.. It was in 1722 that Christian David led the first band 
of Moravian refugees to settle on the estates of Count Zin- 
zendorf , who organized through them the great pioneer move- 
ment of modern missions. 

But by the middle of the century, the era of enlighten- 
ment and the force of world opinion, in the good providence 
of God, had so permeated the Cathohc states of Europe that 
general violent persecution had ceased. One incident will 
suffice as evidence of this. 

The scene w^as in France, where alone, of all the Catholic 
states, there were any great numbers of Protestants. In 1762 
a Huguenot of Toulouse, unjustly charged vv^ith crime, was 
put to torture and to death, under the pressure of the old 
persecuting spirit. Many Huguenots thought the persecu- 
tions of former times were reviving, and prepared to flee to 
Switzerland. But Voltaire took up the matter, and so WTought 
upon pubhc opinion that the Paris parliament reviewed the 
case, and the king paid the man's family a large indemnity. 

This shows that by the middle of that century the days 
of any general persecution had ceased. In the nature of the 



Signs of the Approaching End 



77 



case, we may not point to the exact year and say, Here the 
days of tribulation ended. 

From these times, then, we are to scan the record of his- 
tory to learn if the appointed signs began to appear. As we 
look, we find the events recorded, following on in the order 
predicted : 

1. The Lisbon earthquake, of 1755. 

2. The dark day, of 1780. 

3. The falling stars, of 1833. 

4. General conditions and movements betokening the end. 
''There shall be signs," the Saviour said. We are to study 

the record of events, watching to catch the signs of the ap- 
proaching end as earnestly as the mariner watches the beacon 
lights when he nears the longed-for haven on a dark and 
stormy night. 




AN ANCIENT FLOUR MILL 



Two women shall be grinding at the mill; 
the one shall be taken, and the other left." 
Matt. 24:41. 




THE LISBON EARTHQUAKE 



'There shall be famines, and pestilences, and 
earthquakes, in divers places." Matt. 24 : 7. 



THE LISBON EARTHQUAKE OF 1755 
*'Lo, There Was a Great Earthquake" 

The first of a series of signs of the approaching end is 
thus described by the revelator: 

^'I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, 
there was a great earthquake." Rev. 6: 12. 

The verses immediately preceding this scripture plainly 
describe the days of persecution of the saints of God, and the 
era of protest and reform that cut short that time of tribu- 
lation. Then this first sign appears. This is in harmony with 
Christ's statement that the signs of His second coming should 
begin to appear following the tribulation of those days. 

Just about the close of the days of tribulation occurred 
the Lisbon earthquake, as it is called, though its effects 
reached far beyond Portugal. Prof. W. H. Hobbs, geologist, 
says of it: 

"Among the earth movements which in historic times have affected 
the kingdom of Portugal, that of Nov. 1, 1755, takes first rank, as it does, 
also, in some respects, among all recorded earthquakes. ... In six minutes 
sixty thousand people perished." — '^Earthquakes,^* pp. 1^2, 143. 

(79) 



80 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

*'Lo, there was a great earthquake," the revelator said. 
It was indeed "a great earthquake," and great was its influ- 
ence. In all the world, men's hearts were mightily stirred. 
James Parton, an Enghsh author, says of it: 

"The Lisbon earthquake of Nov. 1, 1755, appears to have put both 
the theologians and philosophers on the defensive. . . . At twenty minutes 
to ten that morning, Lisbon was firm and magnificent, on one of the most 
picturesque and commanding sites in the world, — a city of superb ap- 
proach, placed precisely where every circumstance had concurred to say 
to the founders, Build here! In six minutes the city was in ruins. . . . 
Half the world felt the convulsion. . . . For many weeks, as we see in the 
letters and memoirs of that time, people in distant parts of Europe went 
to bed in alarm, relieved in the morning to find that they had escaped the 
fate of Lisbon one night more." — ''Life of Voltaire," Vol. II, pp. 208, 209. 

The World Set to Thinking 

This earthquake set men to thinking of the great day of 
God. Voltaire, the French philosopher, was ''profoundly 
moved" by it, we are told. ''It was the last judgment for 
that region," he wrote; "nothing was wanting to it except 
the trumpet.' ' More than a month afterward, while still the 
perturbations of the earth were continuing, this skeptic wrote 
a poem upon the problem presented, voicing the sentiment: 

"My heart oppress'd demands 
Aid of the God who formed me with his hands. 
Sons of the God supreme to suffer all 
Fated ahke, we on our Father call. . . . 
Sad is the present if no future state. 
No blissful retribution mortals wait, 
If fate's decrees the thinking being doom 
To lose existence in the silent tomb. 
All may he well; that hope can man sustain. 
All now is well; 'tis an illusion vain. 
The sages held me forth delusive fight, 
Divine instructions only can be right. 
Humbly I sigh, submissive suffer pain. 
Nor more the ways of Providence arraign." 

— ''Poem on the Destruction of Lisbon," Smollet's 

translation; Works, Vol. XXXIII, ed. 1761. 



The Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 81 

Just at the time, plans were under way for the opening 
of a theater at Lausanne for the special performance of some 
of Voltaire's rationalistic dramas. But the enterprise was 
deferred. One writer says: 

''The earthquake had made all men thoughtful. They mistrusted 
their love of the drama, and filled the churches instead." — Tallentyre, 
"Life of Voltaire," p. 319. 

So, in an age of rationalism and unbelief, men's thoughts 
were turned toward God, and human helplessness and earth's 
instability were recognized. 

Extent of the Lisbon Earthquake 

As to the extent of the earthquake, a writer of the period 
shows that it was felt in Sweden and in Africa and in the 
West Indies, adding: 

"The effects were distributed over very nearly four miUions of 
square English miles of the earth's surface, and greatly surpassed any- 
thing of the kind ever recorded in history." — "History and Philosophy 
of Earthquakes" {London, 1757), p. 333. 

The commander of an English ship, lying off Lisbon at 
the time, thus described the scene in a letter to the ship's 
owners: 

"Almost all the palaces and large churches were rent down, or part 
fallen, and scarce one house of this vast city is left habitable. Everybody 
that was not crushed to death ran out into the large places, and those 
near the river ran down to save themselves by boats, or any other floating 
convenience, running, crying, and calling to the ships for assistance; but 
whilst the multitude were gathered near the riverside, the water rose to 
such a height that it overflowed the lower part of the city, which so terri- 
fied the miserable and already dismayed inhabitants, who ran to and fro 
with dreadful cries, which we heard plainly on board, that it made them 
beheve the dissolution of the world was at hand; every one falling on his 
knees and entreating the Almighty for His assistance. . . . By two o'clock 
the ships' boats began to ply, and took multitudes on board. . . . The 
fear, the sorrow, the cries and lamentations of the poor inhabitants are 
unexpressible; every one begging pardon, and embracing each other, cry- 
ing, Forgive me, friend, brother, sister! Oh! what will become of us! 
neither water nor land will protect us, and the third element, fire, seems 
6 



82 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

now to threaten our total destruction! as in effect it happened. The con- 
flagration lasted a whole week." — Thomas Hunter, ^^ Historical Account 
of Earthquakes'' {Liverpool 1756), pp. 72-7J^. 

Recognized as a Sign 

Looking down through the ages, the prophet of the Reve- 
lation saw the coming of the latter days, when signs of the 
approaching end were to begin to appear. Just there he be- 
held ''a great earthquake." The terrible event was noted by 
inspiration as a sign of the coming of the final judgment. 
Earthquakes there had been before, and increasing earth- 
quakes were to follow after, — ''earthquakes in divers places," 
— as Christ foretold, speaking of the signs of His second com- 
ing. But as befitted this first of the series of signs of the ap- 
proaching end, a conviction from God seemed to come into 
the hearts of men in that generation, that this was indeed a 
token to remind the world of a coming day of doom. 

In the year of the disaster, an English poet, John Biddolf, 
pubHshed a book of verse, pointing some of the lessons of the 
hour, from which we quote a few descriptive stanzas: 

"Calm was the sky; the sun serenely bright 
Shot o'er the sea long dazzUng streams of Hght. 
Through orange groves soft breathing breezes play'd 
And gathered sweets like bees where'er they stray'd. 
In fair relievo stood the lofty town, 
Set off by radiant Hghts and shadows brown. 

"Ill-fated city! there were revels kept; 
Devoid of fear, they ate, they drank, they slept. 
No friendly voice like that of ancient Rome 
Was sent to give them warning of their doom: 
No airy warriors to each other clung, 
Such as 'tis said o'er destin'd Sion hung; 
But like a nightly thief their dreadful fate 
Unlocked for came and undermined their state. . . . 

"Lo, what a sudden change! On ruiu's brink 
The proud turn humble, and the thoughtless think. 
Dark, gloomy sadness overclouds the gay, 
And hypocrites for once sincerely pray. ... 



The Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 



83 



"But let it not be thought their horrid deeds 
Had pulled this dreadful judgment on their heads, 
Or that for crimes too horrible to tell, 
Like guilty Sodom, thunderstruck they fell. . . . 

"Who can with curious eyes this globe survey, 
And not behold it tottering with decay? 
All things created, God's designs fulfil, 
And natural causes work His destined will. 
And that eternal Word, which cannot he, 
To mortals hath revealed in prophecy 
That in these latter days such signs should come, 
Preludes and prologues to the general doom. 
But not the Son of man can tell that day; 
Then, lest it find you sleeping, watch and pray." 

Thus this first of the predicted latter-day signs bore its 
message to men. Its immediate scene was set in the Old 
World, but its warning was world-wide. The next sign fore- 
told was to appear in the New World, but like the Lisbon 
earthquake, its message of warning was for all men. 




THE FLOOD 



"So shall also the coming of the Son 
of man be." Matt. 24:39. 




MIDDAY AT SEA 
MAY 19, 1780 



'Between one and two he was obliged to light a 
large candle to steer by." See p. 89. 




SIGNS IN THE HEAVENS 



"Can ye not discern the signs of the 
times?" Matt. 16:3. 



THE DARK DAY OF 1780 



*'The Sun Shall be Darkened" 

We recall that in the vision of latter-day signs given to the 
prophet John, he saw the "great earthquake" followed by 
a sign in the heavens: 

"The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon 
became as blood.'' Rev. 6: 12. 

Of this event our Saviour spoke, in giving the signs of His 
second coming which were to begin to appear following the 
cutting short of the days of persecution. We repeat His 
words: 

"Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the 
sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light." 
Matt. 24:29. 

The Prophecy Fulfilled 

True to the order of the prophecy, following the great 
earthquake of 1755 in Europe, there came, in America, the 
second sign of the approaching end, the wonderful darkening 
of the sun, known in history as "The Dark Day." 

85 



86 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

This sign appeared at the time indicated in the prophecy, 
"immediately after the tribulation of those days;" or as Mark 
has it, ''in those days, after that tribulation." On May 19, 
1780, the sun was darkened, and the follo^\dng night the moon 
did not give her hght. Whatever explanation men may have 
to offer as to the cause of the phenomenon, the fact remains 
that when the time of the prophecy came, the sign appeared. 

The first volume of the "Memoirs of the American Acad- 
emy of Arts and Sciences," pubHshed in Boston in 1785, 
contains a paper entitled, "An Account of a Very Uncommon 
Darkness in the States of New England, May 19, 1780. By 
Samuel WiUiams, A. M., HoUis Professor of Mathematics 
and Philosophy in the University at Cambridge [Massa- 
chusetts]." 

Of the extent, duration, and degree of darkness on that 
occasion, this scientific observer said: 

"The extent of this darkness was very remarkable. . . . From the 
accounts that have been received, it seems to have extended all over the 
New England States. It was observed as far east as Falmouth [Port- 
land, Maine]. To the westward, we hear of its reaching to the furthest 
parts of Connecticut, and Albany. To the southward, it was observed 
all along the seacoasts. And to the north as far as our settlements ex- 
tend. . . . 

"With regard to its duration, it continued in this place at least four- 
teen hours: but it is probable this was not exactly the same in different 
parts of the country. The appearance and effects were such as tended 
to make the prospect extremely dull and gloomy. Candles were hghted 
up in the houses; the birds having sung their evening songs, disappeared, 
and became silent; the fowls retired to roost; the cocks were crowing all 
around as at break of day; objects could not be distinguished but at a 
very little distance; and everything bore the appearance and gloom of 
night." (See pages 234-246.) 

Whittier has commemorated it in the poem, "Abraham 
Davenport:" 

"'Twas on a IMay day of the far old year 
Seventeen hundred eighty, that there fell 
Over the bloom and sweet life of the spring, 
Over the fresh earth and the heaven of noon, 
A horror of great darkness. . . . 



The Dark Day of 1780 87 

"Birds ceased to sing, and all the barnyard fowls 
Roosted; the cattle at the pasture bars 
Lowed, and looked homeward; bats on leathern wings 
Flitted abroad; the sounds of labor died; 
Men prayed, and women wept; all ears grew sharp 
To hear the doom blast of the trumpet shatter 
The black sky." 

The words of the poet are substantiated by the plain prose 
of the dictionary maker. In the department explanatory of 
"Noted Names," Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (edition 

1883) says: 

"T/ie Dark Day, May 19, 1780 — so called on account of a remarkable 
darkness on that day extending over all New England. . . . The obscura- 
tion began about ten o'clock in the morning, and continued till the middle 
of the next night, but with difference of degree and duration in different 
places. . . . The true cause of this remarkable phenomenon is not known." 

Cause Unknown 

At the time, some explained the darkness as being due 
to smoke from forest fires, others to the exceptional rise of 
vapors and atmospheric dust in the warm spring following 
the melting of unusually heavy winter snows. But forest 
fires were not of extraordinary occurrence in these regions, 
and many a springtime since has seen the melting of heavy 
winter snows and the rise of vapors; yet May 19, 1780, still 
stands unique in the annals of modern times as ''the dark 
day." However observers and writers disagreed as to the 
nature of the mantle of darkness that was drawn over New 
England that day, they were one in recognizing the extraor- 
dinary character of the event. 

The facts are fully covered by the statement in the dic- 
tionary, "The true cause of this remarkable phenomenon is 
not known." 

What we do know is that the Saviour^s prophecy declared, 
"Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the 
sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light." 
And when the time for it came, the sign appeared. 



88 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

Contemporary Records 

Though the comparatively small-sized newspapers of the 
day were crowded with news of the progress of the Revolution- 
ary War, then raging, no httle space was given to reports and 
discussions of this remarkable darkening of the sun. 

A correspondent of the Boston Gazette and Country Journal 
(of May 29, 1780) reported observations made at Ipswich 
Hamlet, Mass., ''by several gentlemen of liberal education:" 

"About eleven o'clock the darkness was such as to demand our at- 
tention, and put us upon making observations. At half past eleven, in 
a room with three windows, twenty-four panes each, all open toward the 
southeast and south, large print could not be read by persons of good eyes. 

"About twelve o'clock, the windows being still open, a candle cast 
a shade so well defined on the wall, as that profiles were taken with as 
much ease as they could have been in the night. 

"About one o'clock a glint of light which had continued to this time 
in the east, shut in, and the darkness was greater than it had been for any 
time before. . . . We dined about two, the windows aU open, and two 
candles burning on the table. 

"In the time of the greatest darkness some of the . . . fowls went 
to their roost. Cocks crowed in answer to one another as they commonly 
do in the night. Woodcocks, which are night birds, whistled as they do 
only in the dark. Frogs peeped. In short, there was the appearance 
of midnight at noonday. 

"About three o'clock the fight in the west increased, the motion of 
the clouds [became] more quick, their color higher and more brassy than 
at any time before. There appeared to be quick fiashes or coruscations, 
not unlike the aurora boreafis. . . . About half past four our com- 
pany, which had passed an unexpected night very cheerfuUy together, 
broke up." 

Of the night following, this gentleman (then at Salem) 

wrote : 

"Perhaps it never was darker since the children of Israel left the 
house of bondage. This gross darkness held tiU about one o'clock, al- 
though the moon had fuUed but the day before." 

The Boston Independent Chronicle of June 8 quoted from 
Thomas's Massachusetts Spy: 

"During the whole time a sickly, melancholy gloom overcast the face 
of nature. Nor was the darkness of the night less unc^nmon and ter- 
rifying than that of the day; notwithstanding there was almost a full 



The Dark Day of 1780 89 

moon, no object was discernible, but by the help of some artificial light, 
which when seen from the neighboring houses and other places at a dis- 
tance, appeared through a kind of Egyptian darkness, which seemed al- 
most impervious to the rays. 

"This unusual phenomenon excited the fears and apprehensions of 
many people. Some considered it as a portentous omen of the wrath of 
Heaven in vengeance denounced against the land, others as the immediate 
harbinger of the last day, when 'the sun shall be darkened, and the moon 
shall not give her Hght.' " 

Not only over the land, but out at sea also, the unnatural 
darkness of the day and night of May 19, 1780, was observed. 
In the Independent Chronicle of June 15, 1780, a correspond- 
ent, telling of interviews with various observers, said: 

"I have also seen a very sensible captain of a vessel, who was that 
morning about forty leagues southeast of Boston. He says the cloud 
which appeared at the west was the blackest he ever saw. About eleven 
o'clock there was a little rain, and it grew dark. Between one and two 
he was obhged to light a large candle to steer by. . . . Between nine 
and ten at night, he ordered his men to take in some of the sails, but it 
was so dark that they could not find the way from one mast to the other." 

Thoughts Turned to the Judgment 

This writer commented as follows concerning the feelings 
awakened by the event: . 

"Various have been the sentiments of people concerning the designs 
of Providence in spreading the unusual darkness over us. Some suppose 
it portentous of the last scene. I wish it may have some good effect on 
the minds of the wicked, and that they may be excited to prepare for that 
solemn day." 

The Independent Chronicle of June 22, 1780, printed a 
letter from Dr. Samuel Stearns, who had been appealed to 
because of his knowledge ^'in philosophy and astronomy." 
First, he disposed of one suggestion that had been made: 

"That the darkness was not caused by an eclipse is manifest by the 
various positions of the planets of our system at that time; for the moon 
was more than one hundred and fifty degrees from the sun all that day." 

Then, in the rather heavy language of the science of that 
period, this writer told how the action of the sun's heat was 
continually projecting into the atmosphere particles of earthy 



90 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

matter; and in his opinion it was some ''vast collection of 
such particles that caused the late uncommon darkness." 
But as to the real accounting for the phenomenon he wrote : 

''The primary cause must be imputed to Him that walketh through 
the circuit of heaven, who stretcheth out the heaven Hke a curtain, who 
maketh the clouds His chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind 
It was He, at whose voice the stormy winds are obedient, that com- 
manded these exhalations to be collected and condensed together, that 
with them He might darken both the day and the night; which darkness 
was, perhaps, not only a token of His indignation against the crying 
iniquities and abominations of the people, but an omen of some future 
destruction." 

Thus men's minds were exercised by this sign ''in the sun, 
and in the moon." 

The early records of New York City tell of the interest 
excited there, though evidently the darkness was not so marked 
as it was farther north. 

In the Connecticut Legislature 

President Timothy Dwight, of Yale College, a contem- 
porary, left the following account of one of the historic inci- 
dents of the day: 

"The legislature of Connecticut was then in session at Hartford. A 
very general opinion prevailed that the day of judgment was at hand. 
The house of representatives, being unable to transact their business, 
adjourned. A proposal to adjourn the council [a second legislative body 
called the Governor's Council] was under consideration. When the opin- 
ion of Colonel Davenport was asked, he answered, 'I am against an 
adjournment. The day of judgment is either approaching or it is not. 
If it is not, there is no cause for an adjournment; if it is, I choose to be 
found doing my duty. I wish therefore that candles may be brought.'" 
— Barber, '^ Connecticut Historical Collections," p. 403. 

It was this striking incident that Whittier described with 
the poet's pen : 

" Meanwhile in the old Statehouse, dim as ghosts, 
Sat the lawgivers of Connecticut, 
Trembhng beneath their legislative robes. 

*It is the Lord's great day! Let us adjourn,' 



The Dark Day of 1780 91 

Some said; and then, as with one accord, 
All eyes were turned to Abraham Davenport. 
He rose, slow cleaving with his steady voice 
The intolerable hush. 'This well may be 
The day of judgment which the world awaits; 
But be it so or not, I only know 
My present duty, and my Lord's command 
To occupy tiU He come. So at the post 
Where He hath set me in His providence 
I choose, for one, to meet Him face to face, — 
No faithless servant, frightened from my task. 
But ready when the Lord of the harvest calls; 
And therefore, with all reverence, I would say, 
Let God do His work, we will see to ours. 
Bring in the candles.'" 

Thus, in a manner that arrested the attention of men and 
put awe and solemnity into their hearts, with thoughts of 
the coming of the great day of God, the first of the predicted 
signs in the heavens was revealed. 

At a later time, when students of the Bible seemed 
moved upon simultaneously, in both Europe and America, 
to give attention to the doctrine of Christ's second coming, 
it was more generally understood that these signs had come 
in fulfilment of prophecy. 

As we look to the past, we see how truly the tokens of the 
coming King began to appear as the church of Christ emerged 
fully from the long, dark period of tribulation. A new era 
was dawning, in which the Lord was to fill the earth with light 
before His second appearing, according to His word to Daniel 
the prophet: 

"Thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, 
even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and 
knowledge shall be increased. '^ Dan. 12:4. 

At last the time of the end was at hand, and the signs of 
the latter days had begun to appear in the earth and in the 
heavens. The Lord was preparing to send to all the world 
the closing gospel message of Christ's soon coming in glory. 




THE GREAT METEORIC SHOWER "The stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even 
Mr»\/T:AAT>T:;T3 15 iQ-yi as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when 

INUVtmctK 1^, laid she is shaken of a mighty wind." Rev. 6:13. 




A STAR HERALDS HIS 
FIRST ADVENT 



"We have seen His star in the east, and 
are come to worship Him." Matt. 2:2. 



THE FALLING STARS OF 1833 

*'The Stars Shall Fall from Heaven '^ 

A GREAT impetus was given to the study of divine prophecy 
by the events of the closing years of the eighteenth century. 
Observers had seen the papal power receive a '' deadly wound" 
in the events and effects of the French Revolution; and it was 
understood that the world was entering a new era of enlight- 
enment and liberty. 

Bible students began to see more clearly the lesson of the 
great outlines of historic prophecy, and hearts were stirred 
with the evidences that the coming of the Lord was drawing 
near. In Europe and America, in the early decades of the 
nineteenth century, there was the beginning of a revival of 
the study and preaching of the advent idea. 

Another Sign in the Heavens 

Just here appeared another great sign in the heavens, 
foretold by the word of prophecy. Of the sign that was to 

93 



94 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

follow the darkening of the sun and moon, Christ's prophecy- 
says: 

''The stars shall fall from heaven." Matt. 24:29. 

The prophet John beheld the spectacle in a vision of the 
last days, and described it in these words : 

"The stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree 
casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty 
wind." Rev. 6:13. 

On Nov. 13, 1833, came the wondrous celestial exhibi- 
tion of falUng stars, which is hsted as one of the most remark- 
able phenomena of the astronomical story. 

Meteoric displays, swarms of shooting stars, have been 
observed at various times all through the ages; but this phe- 
nomenon, coming in the order given by the prophecy, that is, 
following the darkening of the sun, constituted the sublime 
display answering to the pen-picture of the Apocalypse, — as 
if all the stars of heaven were falling to the earth. 

The essential thing about a sign is that it shall be seen, 
that the circumstances of its appearance shall fasten attention. 
Not in America alone, but equally in all the civilized world, 
as a topic of study, this sign in the heavens commanded the 
attention of men. 

An EngHsh scientist, Rev. Thomas Milner, F. R. G. S., 

wrote : 

"The attention of astronomers in Europe, and all over the world, 
was, as may be imagined, strongly roused by intelligence of this celestial 
display on the Western continent." — '^The Gallery of Nature" (London, 
1852), p. Ul. 

This writer called it ''by far the most splendid display on 
record." — Id., p. 139. 

Another English astronomical writer of more recent date 
says: 

"Once for all, then, as the result of the star fall of 1833, the study of 
luminous meteors became an integral part of astronomy." — Gierke, 
"History of Astronomy in the Nineteenth Gentury," p. 329. 

This same work describes the extent of the display as fol- 
lows : 



The Falling Stars of 1833 95 

"On the night of Nov. 12-13, 1833, a tempest of falling stars broke 
over the earth. North America bore the brunt of its pelting. From the 
Gulf of Mexico to Halifax, until daylight with some difficulty put an end 
to the display, the sky was scored in every direction with shining tracks 
and illuminated with majestic fireballs." — Page 328. 

The Spectacle Described 

The closest scientific observations were made by Prof. 
Denison Olmsted, professor of astronomy at Yale, who wrote 
in the American Journal of Science: 

''The morning of Nov. 13, 1833, was rendered memorable by an 
exhibition of the phenomenon called shooting stars, which was probably 
more extensive and magnificent than any similar one hitherto recorded. 
. . . Probably no celestial phenomenon has ever occurred in this country, 
since its first settlement, which was viewed with so much admiration and 
dehght by one class of spectators, or with so much astonishment and fear 
by another class. For some time after the occurrence, the 'meteoric 
phenomenon' was the principal topic of conversation in every circle." — 
Volume XXV {1834), pp. 363, 364. 

Prof. Simon Newcomb, the astronomer, declares this 
phenomenal exhibition of falling stars *'the most remark- 
able one ever observed." (See ''Astronomy for Everybody," 
p. 280.) 

This was not merely a display of an unusual number of 
falling stars, such as Humboldt observed in South America 
in 1799, or such as we find recorded of other times before and 
since. It was a ''shower" of falling stars, just such a spectacle 
as one must picture from the words of the prophecy, "And 
the stars of heaven fell." 

The French astronomer Flammarion says of the density 

of the shower: 

"The Boston observer, Olmsted, compared them, at the moment 
of maximum, to half the number of flakes which we perceive in the air 
during an ordinary shower of snow." — "Popular Astronomy," p. 536. 

This affords us a better idea of the scene than the estimate 
of 34,640 stars an hour, which was made by Professor Olmsted 
after the rain of the stars had greatly abated, so that he was 
able to make an attempt at counting. 



96 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

Dr. Humphreys, president of St. John's College, Annap- 
oHs, said of the appearance at the Maryland capital: 

"In the words of most, they fell like flakes of snow J' — American 
Journal of Science, Vol. XXV {1834), V- 372. 

Nothing less than this could have presented the counter- 
part of the prophetic picture. 

Thoughtful hearts were solemnized by the unwonted spec- 
tacle. Prof. Alexander Twining, civil engineer, '4ate tutor in 
Yale College," giving his views as to the nature of the flaming 
visitants from space, wrote: 

"Had they held on their course unabated for three seconds longer, 
haK a continent must, to all appearance, have been involved in unheard- 
of calamity. But that abnighty Being who made the world, and knew 
its dangers, gave it also its armature — endowing the atmospheric medium 
around it with protecting, no less than with life-sustaining, proper- 
ties. ... 

"Considered as one of the rare and wonderful displays of the Crea- 
tor's preserving care, as well as the terrible magnitude and power of His 
agencies, it is not meet that such occurrences as those of November 13 
should leave no more soHd and permanent effect upon the human mind 
than the impression of a splendid scene." — American Journal of Science, 
Vol. XXVI {1834), V- 351. 

Multitudes felt that the great Creator had spoken to men 
in this notable wonder of His heavens. Again and again in 
the records and reminiscences of that time, testimony is borne 
to the fact that observers were impressed with the Hkeness 
of the scene to that described in the divine prophecy as one of 
the signs of the end of the world. 

The Prophetic Picture Reproduced 

The New York Journal of Commerce emphasized the exact- 
ness of detail with which the prophecy described the scene as 
it appeared in 1833. This is the apocalyptic picture, as the 
ancient prophet saw it in vision : 

''The stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree 
casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty 
wind." Rev. 6: 13. 



The Falling Stars of 1833 97 

A correspondent of the Journal of Commerce draws the 
picture as it was seen nearly eighteen centuries later, the Uke- 
ness to the prophetic description being emphasized in every 
line: 

"No philosopher or scholar has told or recorded an event like that 
of yesterday morning. A prophet eighteen hundred years ago foretold 
it exactly, if we will be at the trouble of understanding stars falhng to 
■mean falHng stars." — New York Journal of Commerce, Nov. I4, 1833. 

In this connection was noted by the same writer the special 
appropriateness of the prophet's figure of the fig tree casting 
the green figs in a mighty wind: 

"Here is the exactness of the prophet. The falling stars did not 
come as if from several trees shaken, but from one. Those which appeared 
in the east fell toward the east: those which appeared in the north fell 
toward the north; those which appeared in the west fell toward the west; 
and those which appeared in the south (for I went out of my residence 
into the park) fell toward the south; and they fell not as ripe fruit falls; 
far from it; but ihey flew, they were cast, Uke the unripe fig, which at first 
refuses to leave the branch; and when it does break its hold, flies swiftly, 
straight off, descending; and in the multitude falUng, some cross the track 
of others, as they are thrown with more or less force." 

Professor Olmsted's long and carefully elaborated ac- 
count in the American Journal of Science^ gave a report from 
a correspondent in Bowhng Green, Mo., as follows: 

"Though there was no moon, when we first observed them, their 
brilliancy was so great that we could, at times, read common-sized print 
without much difiiculty, and the light which they afforded was much 
whiter than that of the moon, in the clearest and coldest night, when the 
ground is covered with snow. The air itself, the face of the earth as far 
as we could behold it, all the surrounding objects, and the very counte- 
nances of men, wore the aspect and hue of death, occasioned by the con- 
tinued, pallid glare of these countless meteors, which in all their grandeur 
flamed 'lawless through the sky.' 

"There was a grand and indescribable gloom on all around, an awe- 
inspiring sublimity on all above; while — ■ 
"'The sanguine flood 

Rolled a broad slaughter o'er the plains of heaven, 

And nature's self did seem to totter on the brink of time!' 

"... There was scarcely a space in the firmament which was not 
filled at every instant with these falling stars, nor on it jeould you in gen- 

7 




THE SIGN OF FIRE 



As this sign of fire in the watchtower was a signal to God's 
people anciently to flee from the coming danger (see Jer. 
6:1), so the signs appearing now in the heavens and in the 
earth are God's signals of warning to the people of our day. 



The Falling Stars of 1833 99 

eral perceive any particular difference in appearance; still at times they 
seemed to shower down in groups ■ — calHng to mind the fig tree, casting 
her untimely figs when shaken by a mighty wind." — ■ Volume XXV {183 Ji), 
p. 382. 

A Sign to All the World 

It was not in North America alone, but in all the civilized 
world, that the attention of men was called to the prophetic 
word by the discussions of this event. Thus the EngHsh 
scientific writer, Thomas Milner, writing for the British public, 
spoke as follows of the profound impression made: 

"In many districts, the mass of the population were terror-struck, and 
the more enhghtened were awed at contemplating so vivid a picture of 
the apocalyptic image — that of the stars of heaven falling to the earth, 
even as a fig tree casting her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty 
wind."— "T/ie Gallery of Nature'' {London, 1852), p. UO. 

So the sign in the heavens made its solemn appeal to all 
the world. It brought to the multitudes who saw it, thoughts 
of God and the last great day. An observer living at the time 
in Georgia, wrote, '^ Everybody felt that it was the judgment, 
and that the end of the world had come." Another, in Ken- 
tucky, wrote, ''In every direction I could hear men, women, 
and children screaming, 'The judgment day is come!'" 

Rather, it was a signal that the hour of God's judgment 
was drawing near. The signs so long foretold were appear- 
ing, one by one, to register their enduring mark on the record 
of fulfilling prophecy. 

Immediately following these times, there began an awaken- 
ing concerning the vital Bible doctrine of the second coming 
of Christ, which has grown into the definite advent movement 
that is carrying the gospel message of preparation for the com- 
ing of the Lord to every nation and tongue and people. 

The Sign of 1833 Emphasized by Other Displays 

We have mentioned the fact that Humboldt had observed 
an extraordinary fall of meteorites in South America, thirty- 
three years before, in 1799. And he reported at the time 



100 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

that the oldest inhabitants there had a recollection of a similar 
display in 1766. 

From these reports, scientists deduced the theory that 
these showers were to be expected every thirty-three years. 
Hence in 1866 they were watching for a repetition of the 1833 
display. 

That there was a measure of truth in the deduction was 
made evident by an unusual fall of meteorites Nov. 14, 1866. 
This time Europe was the scene of the display. But the event 
was not to be compared with that of 1833. This appears 
plain from the account of observations made by Sir Robert 
Ball and Lord Rosse, the British astronomers. 

Sir Robert Ball says that when the meteorites began to 
fall, he and Lord Rosse went out upon the wall of the observa- 
tory housing Lord Rosse's great reflecting telescope: 

"There, for the next two or three hours, we witnessed a spectacle 
which can never fade from my memory. The shooting stars gradually 
increased in number until sometimes several were seen at once." — "Story 

of the Heavens, ^^ p. 380. , 

Grand as the spectacle was, it was but a reminder, appar- 
ently, of the star shower of 1833, when not "several'' meteor- 
ites fell at a time, nor many, merely, but, as it appeared, 
"the stars of heaven fell unto the earth." 

However, the spectacle of 1866, which was observed over 
a great part of the Old World,* served to direct renewed at- 
tention to the incomparable event of 1833, as well as to the 
prophetic descriptions of the "wonders in the heavens" (Joel 
2 : 30) which were to appear as the end drew near. 



* The display was most brilliant, apparently, in Western Asia. The vet- 
eran missionary, Dr. H. H. Jessup, of the Presbyterian Missionary College, of 
Beirut, describes the scene in his " Fifty-Three Years in Syria : " " On the 
morning of the fourteenth [November], at three o'clock, I was roused from a 
deep sleep by the voice of one of the young men calling, ' The stars are all 
coming down.' . . . The meteors poured down like a rain of fire. Many of 
them were large and varicolored, and left behind them a long train of fire. 
One immense green meteor came down over Lebanon, seeming as large as the 
moon, and exploded with a large noise, leaving a green pillar of light in its 
train. It was vain to attempt to count them, and the display continued until 
dawn, when their light was obscured by the king of day. . . . The Moham- 
medans gave the call to prayer from the minarets, and the common people 
were in terror." — Volume Jj pp. 316^ 317. 



The Falling Stars of 1833 



101 



Textbooks and astronomical works thereupon began to 
count it as fully established that every thirty-three years the 
displays would be repeated. It was confidently predicted 
that 1899 would witness a repetition, possibly on the scale 
of 1833. 

Professor Langley's "New Astronomy" (published in 1888) 
said : 

"The great November shower, which is coming once more in this 
century, and which every reader may hope to see toward 1899, is of par- 
ticular interest to us as the first whose movements were subject to analysis." 




CHRIST'S PROMISE TO RETURN 



I will come again, and receive you 
unto Myself." John 14:3. 



Chambers's Astronomy, pubUshed in 1889, said: 

"The meteors of November 13 may be expected to reappear with 
great brilliancy in 1899."— Volume I, p. 635. 

But the November date passed in 1899, and the years 
have passed; and the wondrous scene of 1833 has not been 
repeated. Gierke's ''History of Astronomy in the Nine- 
teenth Century" says: 



102 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

"We can no longer count upon the Leonids [as the meteorites of 1833 
were called, because they seemed to fall from a point in the constellation of 
Leo]. Their glory, for scenic purposes, is departed." — Page 838. 

The Lord's Signal to Watch 

Thus the wisest astronomical predictions made shortly 
before 1899, based upon the apparently recurrent regularity 
of the phenomenon, failed; but the predictions of the sure 
word of prophecy, set down on the sacred record eighteen 
centuries before, were fulfilled to the letter. 

At the close of the days of the predicted tribulation of 
the church, the signs began to appear — the sun was dark- 
ened, the moon withheld its light, and the stars of heaven fell. 

The series began at the time specified, the signs came in 
the order given in Christ's prophecy. The record of history 
bears witness that the prophecy was fulfilled. 

It may be that on a yet more awful and universal scale 
these phenomena will be seen again in that last shaking of 
the powers of heaven which is to attend the rolling back of 
the heavens as a scroll, the immediate prelude to Christ^s 
glorious appearing. But, Christ's prophecy, at this point, was 
not giving a description of events at the very end of the 
world, but signs by which it might be known when the end 
was drawing near. 

As the signs should be recognized, the Saviour intended 
that those who loved His appearing should be quickened with 
hope, and inspired to hasten to the world with the gospel 
message preparing the way of the Lord. The Lord's word 
for His children was, 

''When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, 
and Hft up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.'' 
Luke 21 : 28. 

Long ago these signs began to come to pass. Now may 
the Lord's believing children well look up and rejoice, knowing 
that the day of eternal redemption is indeed nigh at hand. 



The Falling Stars of 1833 103 



He Will Come for His Own 

In the glad time of the harvest, 

In the grand millennial year, 
When the King shall take His scepter, 

And to judge the world appear, 
Earth and sea shall yield their treasure, 

All shall stand before the throne; 
Just awards will then be given. 

When the King shall claim His own. 

O the rapture of His people! 

Long they've dwelt on earth's low sod, 
With their hearts e'er turning homeward. 

Rich in faith and love to God. 
They will share the life immortal. 

They will know as they are known. 
They will pass the pearly portal, 

When the King shall claim His own. 

Long they've toiled within the harvest. 

Sown the precious seed with tears; 
Soon they'll drop their heavy burdens 

In the glad millennial years; 
They will share the bliss of heaven, 

Nevermore to sigh or moan; 
Starry crowns will then be given, 

When the King shall claim His own. 

We shall greet the loved and loving, 

Who have left us lonely here; 
Every heartache will be banished 

When the Saviour shall appear; 
Never grieved with sin or sorrow. 

Never weary or alone; 
O, we long for that glad morrow 

When the King shall claim His own! 

— L. D. Santee. 




W 05 




THE MISER 



"Ye have heaped treasure together for 
the last days." James 5:3. 



THE MEANING OF PRESENT-DAY 
CONDITIONS 

"THERE SHALL BE SIGNS . . . UPON THE EARTH" 

From the specific signs in the heavens, which were to 
herald the coming of the latter days and awaken the church 
to look for its coming Lord, our Saviour's prophecy passed 
on to designate certain general conditions in the world which 
were to continue until the great day of God comes: 

"There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in 
the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with per- 
plexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing 
them for fear, and for looking after those things which are 
coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. 
And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud 
with power and great glory." Luke 21:25-27. 

Among the developments here foretold, and which con- 
tribute to the "distress of nations, with perplexity," we may 

list the following: 

105 



106 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



1. Political Unrest — the Arming of the Nations 

Following on closely with the signs in the heavens, there 
appears also the awakening to national aspirations and rival- 
ries in Europe, out of which has grown the arming of the na- 
tions. The beginning of the modern race of armaments may 
be dated from those stirring and eventful years of 1830 to 
1848. We have seen the resources of the soil and the inven- 




THE ARMING OF THE NATIONS 



' Prepare war, . . . beat your plowshares 
into swords, and your pruning books 
into spears." Joel 3:9, 10. 



tive genius of man devoted to preparations for war on a scale 
never before thought of. The prophet Joel foretold these 
conditions in the last days: 

'' Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles ['Hhe nations," 
R. v.] : Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men 
of war draw near; let them come up: beat your plowshares 
into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak 
say, I am strong. . . . Let the heathen be wakened. . . . 



The Meaning of Present-Day Conditions 



107 



Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision [or ''cutting 
off"]: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of deci- 
sion." Joel 3:9-14. 

Another prophecy forewarns of the ''peace and safety'* 
cry that is to be heard as the end draws near. We are told 
that many people in the last days will be saying that swords 




READY FOR THE CONFLICT 



" For the day of the Lord is near." 
Joel 3:14. 



are to be beaten into plowshares, and that the nations will 
cease from war (Isa. 2:3, 4); but the actual conditions are 
repeatedly described in prophecy as warhke and perilous. 
Thus the revelator saw the closing days: 

"The nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and 
the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that 
Thou shouldst give reward unto Thy servants the prophets, 
and to the saints, and them that fear Thy name, small and 
great; and shouldst destroy them which destroy the earth." 
Rev. 11:18. 




A FAITHFUL AND WISE 
SERVANT 



Watch therefore : for ye know not what hour 
your Lord doth come." Matt. 24:42. 



The Meaning of Present-Day Conditions 109 

What we see then among the nations proclaims the ap- 
proaching end. 

2. Signs in the Social World 

A New Testament prophecy of the latter days says : 

"In the last days perilous times shall come. For men 
shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, 
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, with- 
out natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, inconti- 
nent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, 
high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God." 
2 Tim. 3:1-4. 

The "perilous times'' have come, when, as never before, 
the world is pleasure mad. 

"Unrestrained passion for pleasure," said M. Comte, 
editor of the French Relevement Social, writing just before the 
European war, is bringing a terrible train of evils into modern 
society. Along with it he put "the hunt for money without 
regard for means," adding: 

"This is the theme which manufacturers, business men, men in the 
public administration, continually harp on with ever the same conviction 
and ever the same wealth of proof. 

"The note is ever the same, and the conclusion identical: Nous sommes 
yerdus! [We are lost!] " — Quoted in Record of Christian Work, July, 1914. 

Many agencies for social and temperance reform are ren- 
dering the greatest human service; but for lost humanity the 
only hope is Christ, the divine Saviour. With an urgency 
born of the last call, His gospel is sounding to a world on the 
verge of eternity. Yet with divine love longing to save, the 
world sweeps on, less and less mindful of eternal interests. 
Christ's prophecy foretold it as it is: 

"As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the 
Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood 
they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in mar- 
riage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew 
not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall 
also the coming of the Son of man be." Matt. 24:37-39. 



110 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



Who can look out upon mankind today without the convic- 
tion that this scripture is being fulfilled? The drift is strong 
toward the world and away from God; but we are bidden 
to watch and pray, lest the coming day find us unprepared. 

3. Signs in the Industrial World 

Industrial conditions today add their contribution to the 
"distress of nations, vdih perplexit3^" Through the word 
of prophecy the Lord long ago foretold these conditions, with 




**AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER?'* A night scene on the Thames 

embankment, London. 

a warning to the careless rich, and a warning to the laborer 
and the poor, not to be drawn into contention over the things 
of this world, for the Judge is at the door. The prophecy, 
it will be seen, refers specifically to latter-day conditions. 

"Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries 
that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and 
your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is can- 
kered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, 
and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treas- 
ure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labor- 



The Meaning of Present-Day Conditions 



111 



ers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept 
back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have 
reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye 
have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; 
ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Yc 
have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you. 




THE RICH YOUNG MAN 



Sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, 
and thou shalt have treasure in heaven." 
Matt. 19:21. 



"Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the 
Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious 
fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he re- 
ceive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish 
your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge 
not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: 
behold, the Judge standeth before the door.'' James 5: 1-9. 

There is no need to argue that the issues with which the 
prophecy deals are pressing upon the world with ever-increas- 



112 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

ing perplexity. We quote but two statements, by men not 
engaged in agitation, but calmly and thoughtfully setting 
down the signs of the times. 

The late Lord Avebury (Sir John Lubbock) wrote a few 
years ago in the Review of Internationalism: 

" The religion of Europe is not Christianity, but the worship of the god 
of war. . . . Unless something is done, the condition of the poor in Europe 
will grow worse and worse. It is no use shutting our eyes. Revolution 
may not come soon, not probably in our time, but come it will, and as 
sure as fate there will be an explosion such as the world has never seen." 

Of the rapid growth of discontent and its propaganda, 
Mr. Frederick Townsend Martin, of New York, wrote: 

"Fifty years ago there was scarcely a voice of protest; indeed, there 
was hardly anything to protest against. Twenty-five years ago the pro- 
test was clear and distinct, and we imderstood it. Ten years ago the 
protest found expression in a dozen weekly pubhcations, but today the 
protest is circulated not by hundreds or thousands of printed copies of 
books, pamphlets, magazines, and newspapers, but actually by the million. 

"This propaganda of protest has its daily papers that are distinc- 
tive and published for that purpose, and that purpose only. It has 
its magazines and tens of thousands of weekly papers. Only a fool sneers 
at such a volume of pubHcity as that. . . . 

"The warnings that hundreds of us are uttering may be ignored. 
The squandering may go on, the 'VTilgar bacchanaha may be prolonged, 
the poor may have to writhe under the iron heel of the iron lord — the 
dance of death may go on until society's E string snaps, and then the 
Vesuvius of the underworld will belch forth its lava of death and destruc- 
tion." — Hearst's Magazine, September, 1913. 

Thus hearts grow faint ''for looking after those things 
which are coming on the earth." But while the increasing 
''distress of nations, with perplexity," abounds, the Lord sends 
the steadying, assuring message that soon Christ will come 
to end the reign of sin and strife. He would have His chil- 
dren keep the gospel Hght glowing, and wait patiently for Him. 

4. The Great Missionary Movement 

The Saviour's prophecy of the signs of His second coming 
places the work of world evangeUzation as the culminating 
sign. This in itself is a joyful token of the approaching 



The Meaning of Present-Day Conditions 113 

end, a bright signal of hope in a suffering world. He said: 
^'This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in aU the 
world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end 
come." Matt. 24:14. 

Before the end, the Hght of the gospel was to shine into 
every dark corner of the earth. True to the sure word of 
prophecy, when the latter days began, — "the time of the end," 
— there sprang up the great movement of modern missions 
which has been one of the leading characteristics of the last 
century. Here are a few facts showing the missionary de- 
velopments of a single century: 

"In 1800 the foreign missionary societies numbered seven. In 1900 
they numbered over 500. 

"In 1800 the income of seven societies amounted to about $50,000. 
In 1900 the income was over $15,000,000. 

"In 1800 the number of native communicants enrolled in Protestant 
mission churches was 7,000. In 1900 there were 1,500,000 native com- 
municants. 

"In 1800 the adherents of Protestant churches in heathen lands were 
estimated at 15,000. In 1900 they numbered 3,500,000. 

"In 1800 only one fifth of the human family had the Bible in lan- 
guages they could read. In 1900 nine tenths of the people of the world 
had the Word of God in languages and dialects known to them." 

Since 1900 the missionary movement has remarkably in- 
creased in extent and activity. It is estimated that now there 
are about 22,000 foreign missionaries in the fields, with many 
thousands of trained native evangelists and helpers. 

The prophecy is fulfilling before our eyes. It is not the 
conversion of the world that Christ's words foretold, but the 
evangelization of the world; and when all the world has heard 
the gospel of the kingdom, ''then shall the end come." 

Another prophecy — that of Rev. 14 : 6-14 — shows that 
the closing phase of this world-wide missionary movement is 
to be the proclamation of the special gospel message of prep- 
aration for the coming of the Lord, calling all men to wor- 
ship God and keep His commandments, and warning them 

8 




THE SUNSET HOUR 



The work that centuries might have done 
Must crowd the hour of setting sun." 



The Meaning of Present-Day Conditions 115 

against following the traditions of men that make void the 
Word of God. 

With the coming of this generation there has come just 
such a message, in the rise and progress of the advent move- 
ment, the burden of the message being expressed in the very 
language of the prophecy — "Fear God, and give glory to 
Him; for the hour of His judgment is come." Rev. 14:7. 
And the movement is spreading rapidly 'Ho every nation, 
and Idndred, and tongue, and people." Thus in vision the 
prophet on Patmos heard the message given; and when its 
warning cry had reached all nations, he saw Christ coming 
in the clouds of heaven to reap the harvest of the earth. 

"Even at the Doors" 

Of the beginning of the special signs of the last days, Christ 
said: 

"When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, 
and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." 
Luke 21 : 28. 

But of the time when these signs should all be seen ful- 
filled or in process of fulfilment, the Saviour said: 

"Now learn a parable of the fig tree: When his branch is 
yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer 
is nigh: so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, 
know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto 
you. This generation shall not pass, till all these things be 
fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words 
shall not pass away." Matt. 24:32-35. 

In this generation we see these things. All about us the 
signs have appeared. We know, then, by the word that shall 
not pass away, that the generation has at last appeared that 
is to see the Saviour coming in power and great glory. "Of 
that day and hour knoweth no man," but we may know "that 
it is near, even at the doors" — the day for which the saints 
of God have hoped through all the ages. 




PHILIP AND THE EUNUCH 



' Understandest thou what thou 
readest?" Acts 8:30. 




THE ROYAL PALACE OF 
BABYLON 



'The God of heaven hath given thee 
a kingdom, power, and strength, and 
glory." Dan. 2:37. 



THE HISTORIC PROPHECY OF DANIEL 7 



FOUR GREAT UNIVERSAL EMPIRES 

Part I 

So important is it that we understand the events leading 
on to the end, that repeatedly the ''sure word of prophecy" 
outlines the course of this world's history, and sets up way- 
marks along the highway to the everlasting kingdom. 

In the light of prophecy we see the hand of God guiding 
and overruHng through all history, shaping events for the 
carrying out of His purpose to end the reign of sin and to bring 
in the reign of eternal righteousness. His prophetic word 
foretells events of history, that we may know that He is the 
living God over all, and that we may understand that the di- 
vine purpose will surely be fulfilled. Above a wicked world 
there is a God in heaven, waiting only the appointed time 
for the accomplishment of His purposes. 

"I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end 
from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that 

117 



118 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will 
do aU My pleasure. ... I have spoken it, I also wiU bring 
it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it. . . . My sal- 
vation shall not tarry; and I will place salvation in Zion." 
Isa. 46:9-13. 

In the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, recorded in the second 
chapter of Daniel, the Lord revealed in brief but graphic 
outhne the course of history from the days of Babylon to the 
end of the world. The four great universal monarchies, — 
Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome — were represented 
by the various parts of the metallic image. That prophecy 
described particularly the division of the Roman Empire into 
the kingdoms of western Europe. "In the days of these 
kings," declared the word of the Lord, the God of heaven was 
to set up His kingdom, bringing an end to all earthly powers. 

In the seventh chapter we are taken over the same course 
of history, in Daniel's vision of the four beasts. Here also 
chief attention is devoted to the fourth great kingdom; and 
especially to its divided state; for the events taking place at 
this time are of the deepest eternal interest to all men. 

In this vision Daniel saw four universal empires repre- 
sented by great beasts. One after another the symbolic 
beasts arose, did their work, and gave place to the next scenes 
in the history. The angel clearly explained to Daniel the 
meaning of the vision : 

''These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which 
shaU arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High 
shaU take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, 
even forever and ever." 

Of necessity, then, it is a repetition of the story of the four 
universal monarchies dealt with in the second chapter, and 
ending with the setting up of the everlasting kingdom. 

Let us place the view given the prophet in vision along- 
side the record of history. 

First, however, a word as to the manner in which the great 
beasts appeared to the prophet: 



The Historic Prophecy of Daniel 7 



119 



*'I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds 
of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great 
beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another/' 

Again and again, in the figurative language of Scripture, 
winds are used as the symbol for wars; and the sea, or waters, 
for nations or peoples. (See Jer. 25: 31-33; Rev. 17: 15.) The 
prophet saw the clashing of the nations in war, and out of 
these conflicts arose the kingdoms described in the prophecy. 




THE FIRST BEAST 



The first was like a lion, and had 
eagle's wings." Dan. 7:4. 



Babylon 



Note the prophetic picture of the prophecy and the cor- 
responding representation in history. 

Prophecy. — "The first was like a Hon, and had eagle's 
wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it 
was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as 
a man, and a man's heart was given to it." 

History. — As the lion is king of beasts, it was a fitting 
symbol of Babylon, "the glory of kingdoms." Isa. 13: 19. 



120 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



The eagle's wings suggest rapidity of movement and far- 
reaching conquest. The prophet Habakkuk said of it, "Their 
horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle." 
This was the characteristic of Babylon under the earher kings, 
but especially under Nebuchadnezzar. Berosus, the ancient 
Chaldean historian, wrote of him: 

"This Babylonian king conquered Egypt, and Syria, and Phenicia, 
and Arabia; and exceeded in his exploits all that had reigned before him 
in Babylon." (See Flavins Josephus "Against Apion," book 1, par. 19.) 




THE SECOND BEAST "And behold another beast, a second, 

like to a bear." Dan. 7:5. 

But now, at the time of Daniel's vision, degeneracy had 
come; the empire was tottering. The lion heart was gone, 
the eagle's wings were plucked, and within three years from 
the time the vision was given, Babylon was overthrown. 

Medo -Persia 

As the dominion passed from Babylon to the next great 
power, the prophet says: 

Prophecy. — ''Behold another beast, a second, Hke to a bear, 
and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the 



The Historic Prophecy of Daniel 7 121 

mouth of it between the teeth o* it: and they said thus unto 
it, Arise, devour much flesh." 

History. — The Medes and Persians overtnrew Babylon. 
Medo-Persia was a dual kingdom, lifting itself up on one side, 
first the Median branch the stronger, then the Persian, under 
Cyrus and his successors, rising higher. This two-sided char- 
acteristic, noted as a distinguishing mark in the prophecy, 
was emphasized by the ancient writers also. ^Eschylus, the 
Greek poet, who lived in the time of Persia, wrote : 

"Asia's brave host, 
A Mede first led. The virtues of his son 
Fixed firm the empire. ... 
... Cyrus third, by fortune graced, 
Adorned the throne." 

—''Persaer 

The word spoken in the vision, ''Arise, devour much flesh," 
describes the history from the time when the Persian side 
rose uppermost. RawHnson says, ''Cyrus proceeded with 
scarcely a pause on a long career of conquest." 

An alliance against Persia was formed by Lydia, Egypt, 
and Babylon (Herodotus 1 : 77) ; and as these three great 
provinces were subdued, they may well be represented by 
the three ribs in the mouth of the Medo-Persian bear. 

Grecia 

Yet another kingdom was to follow, and strikingly the 
symbol pictures the characteristics of the Greek conquest. 

Prophecy. — "After this I beheld, and lo another, like a 
leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; 
and the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given 
to it." 

History. — The third kingdom was Grecia. Under Alex- 
ander the Great, the Greeks swept into Asia with the quick- 
ness of the leopard's spring. And the four wings on the leop- 
ard must represent astonishing fleetness. Plutarch speaks of 



122 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



the "incredible swiftness" of Alexander's conquests. Appian 
wrote : 

"The empire of Alexander was splendid in its magnitude, in its 
armies, in the success and rapidity of its conquests, and it wanted httle 
of being boundless and unexampled, yet in its shortness of duration it 
was hke a brilUant flash of lightning. Although broken into several 
satrapies, even the parts were splendid." — "History of Rome," preface, 
par. 10. 

Thus the ancient Roman writer pictured the career of 
Grecia just as represented by the prophetic sjTiibol — the 




THE THIRD BEAST 



'After this I beheld, and lo another, 
like a leopard." Dan. 7:6. 



fleetness, the great dominion given it, the division of the em- 
pire into satrapies, as suggested by the four heads of the leop- 
ard. Out of the conflicts following Alexander's death, there 
came the fourfold headship of the empire. Rawlinson says, 
"A quadripartite division of Alexander's domain was recog- 
nized." (See ''Sixth Monarchy," chap. 3.) The real situ- 
ation is best represented, as Dr. Albert Barnes says, by "one 
animal with four heads," just as the prophetic S5rmbol de- 
scribed it centuries before. 



The Historic Prophecy of Daniel 7 



123 



Thus the course of empire followed the outline of the 
"sure word of prophecy" from age to age. 

"Armies were ranged in battle's dread array: 
They fought — their glory withered in its bud; 
They perished — with them ceased their tyrants' sway; 
New wars, new heroes came — their story passed away." 

There was to be no abiding kingdom till the time came 
for God's glorious kingdom to be set up. 




THE FOURTH BEAST 



After this I saw in the night visions, and be- 
hold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and 
strong exceedingly." Dan. 7:7. 



Rome 

As the prophet watched the moving panorama of history, 
foretold in symbols, he said: 

Prophecy. — "After this I saw in the night visions, and 
behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong ex- 
ceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake 
in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it 
was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had 
ten horns. I considered the horns, and, behold, there came 



/ 




The Historic Prophecy of Daniel 7 



125 



up among them another little horn, before whom there were 
three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, 
in this horn were eyes Hke the eyes of a man, and a mouth 
speaking great things/' 

History. — As the iron of the image of Nebuchadnezzar's 
dream fitly represented the "iron monarchy of Rome," so 
here the dreadful beast, with its iron teeth, can be none other 
than Rome, which followed Grecia in world dommion. It was 




BATTLE OF ZAMA, 
B. C. 202 



By whtcli Rome broke the power of Carthage, its 
rival, and "began the conquest of the world." 



the most powerful, the most dominating, of all the beasts in 
the prophetic series. A Roman CathoHc writer, Cardinal 
Manning, compresses into a paragraph the correspondence 
of history to the likeness of the prophecy: 

"The legions of Rome occupied the circumference of the world. 
The miUtary roads which sprang from Rome traversed all the earth; the 
whole world was, as it were, held in peace and in tranquillity by the 
universal presence of this mighty heathen empire. It was 'exceedingly 
terrible,' according to the prophecies of Daniel; it was as it were of iron, 
beating down and subduing the nations." — ^'The Temporal Power of the 
Pope" (London, 1862), p. 122. 



126 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

Thus far every symbol of the prophet^s vision finds its 
exact and clear counterpart in history. A writer living in 
the third century, in the days of imperial Rome, rejoiced to 
see how exactly the prophecy was being fulfilled. Hippol- 
ytus (counted a saint by the Catholic Church) wrote: 

"Rejoice, blessed Daniel! thou hast not been in error! All these 
things have come to pass. After this again thou hast told us of the beast, 
dreadful and terrible. It has iron teeth and claws of brass; it devoured 
and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it. Already 
the iron rules; already it subdues and breaks all in pieces; already it 
brings aU the unwiUing into subjection; already we see these things our- 
selves. Now we glorify God, being instructed by thee." — "Treatise on 
Christ and Antichrist," sec. 33. 

Now the prophetic outline comes to the time of the divi- 
sion of the Roman Empire, introducing events of deepest 
personal interest to us today. 

Part II 
The Fourth Kingdom and the "Little Horn" 

It was the fourth great monarchy, Imperial Rome, and the 
events to follow it, that engaged the anxious inquiry of the 
prophet. He says: 

"Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which 
was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth 
were of iron, and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in 
pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet; and of the ten 
horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, 
and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, 
and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was 
more stout than his fellows. I beheld, and the same horn 
made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until 
the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the 
saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints 
possessed the kingdom.'' 

The prophet wanted to know the truth about it; and the 
angel told him the truth. First, the angel said: 



The Historic Prophecy of Daniel 7 127 

"The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, 
which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour 
the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces." 

The fourth kingdom, as we have seen, was Rome. As 
Cardinal Manning said of the empire, ''It was 'exceeding 
terrible,' according to the prophecies of Daniel; it was as it 
were of iron, breaking down and subduing the nations." 

Of the ten horns that arose out of this fourth great em- 
pire, the angel said: 

"The ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that 
shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall 
be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings." 

We look to the history of the Roman Empire, and what 
do we see? — Just the picture of the prophecy. We see the 
original Roman Empire of the West divided into lesser king- 
doms. We see the barbarian peoples of the North sweeping 
down upon the empire, breaking it up, and establishing within 
its boundaries the various kingdoms that are to this day rep- 
resented by the Idngdoms of western Europe. 

And as we watch the history at this point, we surely see 
"another Httle horn," another land of power, rising among 
the horns representing the kingdoms of divided Rome — a 
kingdom, yet a Idngdom "diverse" from the others. The 
work of this power riveted the attention of the prophet; and 
it is of the greatest importance that we also should watch 
closely to catch the lesson of the divine prophecy. 

Prophetic and Historic Pictures of the ** Little Horn" 

This is plainly the picture presented by the prophet, as 
we look again, observing details more closely. 

The prophet beheld the division of the Roman Empire 
into lesser kingdoms. Then, springing up among these king- 
doms, he saw the Uttle-horn power subduing three of the ten 
kingdoms, speaking great words, and making war with the 
saints of God. It was to be a religious power, then, ruling 
among the kings of the earth, and asserting reUgious dominion 



The Historic Prophecy of Daniel 7 129 

over the faith and consciences of men. ''The same horn made 
war with the saints, and prevailed against them.'^ 

We look to history, and this is what plainly appears: 
We see, as described in the prophecy, a time when ten 
contemporaneous kingdoms filled the territory of the original 
Western Empire. Just there we see an ecclesiastical kingly 
power rise to religious supremacy — the Roman Papacy. We 
see, through its influence, three of the ten kingdoms over- 
thrown, "plucked up by the roots" — three Arian or heret- 
ical kingdoms. And as we watch the history, we find this 
power making ''war with the saints" and prevaihng against 
them through long ages. 

A Roman Catholic writer describes it in a paragraph: 

" Long ages ago, when Rome through the neglect of the Western em- 
perors was left to the mercy of the barbarous hordes, the Romans turned 
to one figure for aid and protection, and asked him to rule them; and thus, 
in this simple manner, the best title of all to kingly right, commenced the 
temporal sovereignty of the popes. And meekly stepping to the throne of 
Caesar, the vicar of Christ took up the scepter to which the emperors and 
kings of Europe were to bow in reverence through so many ages."— Rev. 
James P. Conroy, in American Catholic Quarterly Review, April, 1911. 

Yet again we look at the picture presented in prophecy. 
Then we turn to history; and precisely where and when the 
prophet saw the "little horn" coming up, we see the Roman 
Papacy rising to supremacy. We see this ecclesiastical power 
wielding a kingly scepter among the kingdoms of divided 
Rome, exalting itself above them, with a look "more stout 
than his fellows." We hear it speaking great words, and we 
see it carrying on warfare against the saints. 

Clearly, there was no other power in history, rising at 
that time and in that place, which suggests the slightest cor- 
respondence to the prophecy. In every detail the Roman 
Papacy does correspond to it. 

The prophetic outline has brought us to the rise of the 
great apostasy, so fully dealt with in the New Testament 
prophecy; but there are further specifications in this prcpliecy 
of the seventh of Daniel which demand brief study, 

9 




ST. PETER'S AND THE 
VATICAN 



The magnificent headquarters 
of the papal system. 



THE 1260 YEARS OF DANIEL'S 
PROPHECY 

Compressed into forty-four words, the age-long story of 
the workings of the Roman Papacy is thus told by the angel 
who interpreted Daniel's vision of the little horn: 

''He shall speak great words against the Most High, and 
shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change 
times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a 
time and times and the dividing of time." Dan. 7:25. 

The spirit of this apostasy was abroad in apostolic days. 
"The mystery of iniquity doth already work," said the apostle 
Paul. 2 Thess. 2:7. And this power is to continue to work 
until the end, when it will be destroyed by the brightness of 
Christ's coming. Verse 8. 

A Prophetic Period 

But according to the word of the angel to Daniel, there 
was to be a period during which, in a special sense, the Papacy 
was to hold supremacy over the saints and the times and the 
laws of the Most High. 

131 



132 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

''They shall be given into his hand until a time and times 
and the dividing of time.'' In the Scriptures the word 
''time/' used in this manner, means a year: "at the end of 
times, even years." Dan. 11:13, margin. Therefore a time 
(one year) and times (two years) and the dividing of time 
(half a year) means three years and a half. The same period 
is mentioned twice in the twelfth chapter of Revelation, once 
(verse 14) as "a time, and times, and half a time," and again 
(verse 6) as "a thousand two hundred and threescore days." 

A.D. A.D. 

533 538 THE 1260 YEARS I793 1793 

L I I I 

But in the symboHc representations of time in prophecy, 
a day stands for a year (see Eze. 4: 5, 6, and other scriptures). 
Thus the prophecy foretold a long period of 1260 years dur- 
ing which papal supremacy would continue. 

Now we may ask, When was this supremacy to. begin? 
what would mark the rise of the Papacy to acknowledged su- 
premacy? and what events mark the ending of the 1260 years? 

A Pivotal Point in History 

The answer of history to the voice of prophecy is clear. 

The sixth century was a pivotal period in the history of 
the world. The bishops of Rome had been asserting the 
claims of that seat (or "see") above all others. Justinian was 
emperor of the East. Of Justinian and his time Bury says : 

"He may be likened to a colossal Janus bestriding the way of passage 
between the ancient and medieval worlds. . . . His military achieve- 
ments decided the course of the history of Italy, and affected the devel- 
opment of 'Western Europe; . . . and his ecclesiastical authority influ- 
enced the distant future of Christendom." — '^History of the Later Roman 
Empire," Vol /, pp. 351-S53. 

Of this turning point in the world's history, Finlay says: 
"The changes of centuries passed in rapid succession before the eyes 
of one generation." — ''Greece under the Romans," p. 231. 

Just here we find the Papacy Ufted definitely into acknowl- 
edged supremacy. Imperial Rome had already left its ancient 



The 1260 Years of Daniel's Prophecy 133 

seat to the Papacy, the imperial throne being no longer main- 
tained at Rome. The Bishop of Rome was left the chief 
figure in the ancient seat of the Caesars. The prophecy of 
Rev. 13 : 2 had said of the relation of the old imperial power 
to the Papacy, ''The dragon gave him his power, and his seat, 
and great authority." The seat was given, and now imperial 
Rome was to give to papal Rome the definite recognition of 
its supreme power and "great authority." 

Papal Supremacy Officially Recognized 

In A. D. 533 the emperor Justinian promulgated a letter, hav- 
ing the force of an imperial decree, recognizing the absolute head- 
ship of the Bishop of ' Rome over the churches. It declared : 

"We have been sedulous to subject and unite all the priests of the 
Orient throughout its whole extent to the see of Your Holiness. . . . For 
we do not suffer that anything which is mooted, however clear and un- 
questionable, pertaining to the state of the churches, should fail to be made 
known to Your HoUness, as being the head of all the churches. For, as we 
have said before, we are zealous for the increase of the honor and author- 
ity of your see in all respects." — Cod. Justin., lib. 1, title 1, Bdronii 
"Annates Ecclesiastici," Tom. VII, an. 533, sec. 12 {Translation as given 
in ''The Petrine Claims," by R. F. Littledale, p. 293). 

From this decree (for such it really was) the Roman au- 
thorities date the official recognition of the supremacy of the 
Papacy. Some have taken a later decree by Emperor Phocas 
(a. d. 606) as a starting point. But Dr. Croly says: 

"The highest authorities among the civihans and annalists of Rome 
spurn the idea that Phocas was the founder of the supremacy of Rome; 
they ascend to Justinian as the only legitimate source, and rightly date 
the title from the memorable year 533." — ''The Apocalypse of St. John," 
pp. 172, 173. 

The Sword of Empire Cleaves the Way 

The "great authority" had been recognized. But at this 
time heretical Arian powers compassed the papal seat about. 
The Arian Vandals were persecuting Catholics in Africa, 
Corsica, and Sardinia, and an Arian Gothic king ruled Italy 
from Ravenna, his capital. The imperial arms, however, 



134 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



were at the service of orthodoxy. In 533-534 Justinian's 
famous general, BeHsarius, uprooted the Vandals. The war 
for the faith and the empire was carried into Italy also, 
against the Arian Goths. In 536 Belisarius, unopposed, en- 
tered Rome at the invitation of the Pope. But the next year 




THE POPE ENTERING ST. PETER'S 
FROM THE VATICAN 



The famous statue of St. Peter 
may be seen on the right. 



the Goths ralhed all their forces to retake the city. It was 

a crisis in the struggle for Italy. ''If a single post had given 

way," says Gibbon, "the Romans, and Rome itself, were 

irrecoverably lost." The Goths withdrew, defeated, in 538; 

and this defeat, says Hodgkin, dug "the grave of the Gothic 

monarchy in Italy." 

Though the conflict went on for years before the Goths 

were rooted up, this defeat of 538 was a crucial hour in their 

history. Finlay says: 

"With the conquest of Rome by Belisarius, the history of the ancient 
city may be considered as terminating; and with his defense against 



The 1260 Years of DanieVs Prophecy 



135 



Witiges [538] commences the history of the Middle Ages." — "Greece 
under the Romans" p. 295. 

Roughly speaking, the Middle Ages and the age of papal 
supremacy and power were the same. 

A New Order of Popes 

Not only was there this telhng stroke by the imperial 
sword in 538, helping to clear the way before the Papacy, but 




Cop3nnght by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

THE VATICAN A bird's-eye view from the dome of St. Peter's. 

at this same time the first of a new order of popes was placed 

upon the papal throne by the imperial arms. Pope Silverius, 

accused of sympathy with the Goths, was deposed by Belisa- 

rius in 537. The emperor intervened, and the question of 

the validity of his deposition was held up by the emperor 

until 538. In that year, as Schaff says: 

"Vigilius, a pliant creature of Theodora, ascended the papal chair 
under the military protection of Belisarius (538-554)." — "History of the 
Christian Church;' Vol. Ill, p. 327. 

With him begins a new order. Though personally he was 
humiliated by the emperor's demands, and the Papacy itself 



136 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 




THE FAMOUS SACRED STAIRWAY 
IN ROME 



Here Luther, climbing the stairway on 
his knees, heard the message, "The 
just shall live by faith." 



was brought into a state of subjection that it had not known 
even under heretical Gothic kings, yet this very arbitrary 
use of the papal prerogative by Justinian, strengthened the 
idea that the Pope of Rome was the supreme authority in 



The 1260 Years of DanieVs Prophecy 137 

religion, to speak for the universal church. In Bemont and 
Monod's textbook on ''Medieval Europe/^ pa^e 120, we read: 
''Down to the sixth century all popes are declared saints in the 
martyr ologies. Vigilius (537*-555) is the first of a series of popes who no 
longer bear this title, which is henceforth sparingly conferred. From this 
time on the popes, more and more involved in worldly events, no longer 
belong solely to the church; they are men of the state, and then rulers 
of the state." 

A Persecuting Power 

Following Vigilius came Pelagius I (556-560), who as- 
cended the throne by 'Hhe military aid of Narses," then the 
imperial general in Italy. And Pelagius, who had been set in 
the papal see by imperial power, began to demand that the 
sword of the empire should be used against bishops or members 
in the church who did not give way to the authority of the 
Pope. His letters on this subject ''are an unqualified defense 
of the principles of persecution." (See ''Dictionary of Chris- 
tian Biography," by Smith and Wace, art. "Pope Pelagius.") 

The prophecy declared that the Papacy would be given 
special supremacy during a period of 1260 years. 

In A. D. 533 came the memorable imperial declaration 
recognizing that supremacy, and in a. d. 538 came the stroke 
with the sword of Rome, cleaving the way; and there began 
the new order of popes — "men of the state, and then rulers 
of the state." 

Thus decisive events clearly mark the beginning of the 
prophetic period of the 1260 years. And just 1260 years 
from the decree of 533, in recognition of the papal supremacy, 
came a decree, in 1793, aimed against that supremacy; and 
just 1260 years from that stroke with the sword at Rome in 
behalf of the Papacy, came a stroke with the sword at Rome 
against the Papacy. 



* The exact date should be 538, as given in the quotation from Schnflf's 
history. " From the death of Silverius [June, 538] the Roman Catholic writ- 
ers date the episcopacy of Vigilius." — Bower, "History of the Popes," under 
year 538. 




TAKING THE POPE PRISONER 



This was accomplished by Berthier, 
the French general, in 1798. 



THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA 

THE END OF THE 1260 YEARS 

As the generation in which the papal power rose to su- 
premacy was a turning-point in the history of the world, so, 
too, was the generation in which the 1260 years of its suprem- 
acy came to an end. 

This measuring Hne of prophecy does more than rim from 
date to date. It connects two great crises in human history, 
the events of the first tending to establish the papal rule over 
men, the events of the second signaHzing a breaking of those 
bands. 

A Crisis in History 

Papal supremacy came at that time of which Finlay says, 
''The changes of centuries passed in rapid succession before 
the eyes of one generation." The measuring line of 1260 
years rims on through the centuries till, lo, its end touches 
another time of crisis, — Europe in the convulsions of the 

139 



140 Our Day in the Light of Prophe y 

French Revolution, when again changes, ordinarily requir- 
ing centuries, were wrought out before the eyes of men within 
the space of a few years. Lamartine wrote of that time: 

"These five years are five centuries for France." — "History of the 
Girondists," book 61, sec. 16 {Vol. Ill), p. 544- 

And the events of these times proclaimed the prophetic period 
of papal supremacy ended at last. 

Thus, in a. d. 533 came the notable decree of the Papacy's 
powerful supporter, recognizing its supremacy; and then the 
decisive stroke by the sword at Rome in a. d. 538, cleaving 
the way for the new order of popes — the rulers of state. 

Exactly 1260 years later, in 1793, came the notable decree 
of the Papacy's once powerful supporter, France, — 'Hhe eldest 
son of the church," — aiming to abolish church and religion, 
followed by a decisive stroke with the sword at Rome against 
the Papacy, in 1798. 

Significant Events of the French Revolution 

Of the decree of 1793, W. H. Hutton says: — 

"On Nov. 26, 1793, the Convention, of which seventeen bishops and 
some clergy were members, decreed the aboHtion of all rehgion." — "Age 
of Revolution," p. 156. 

The frenzy of the days of the Terror presented the spec- 
tacle of outraged humanity, goaded to desperation by cen- 
turies of oppression in the name of rehgion and divine right, 
rising up and madly breaking every restraint. Because in 
the minds of the people the Papacy stood for rehgion, they 
blindly struck at religion itself, and at God, in whose name 
the papal church had done its cruel work through the cen- 
turies. 

In the prophecy of Rev. 11: 3-13 these events of the wild 
days of the French Revolution are specifically referred to as 
coming at the close of the prophetic period of the 1260 years. 
The prophetic picture was so clear that over a hundred years 
before the time, Jurieu, an eminent French student of proph- 
ecy, wrote that he could ''not doubt that 'tis France," the 



The Dawn of a New Era 141 

chief supporter of the Papacy, that would give the shock as 
of an earthquake to the great spiritual Babylonian city. He 
wrote of France, one of the ten parts of divided Rome: 

"This tenth part of the city shall fall, with respect to the Papacy; 
it shall break with Rome, and the Roman reUgion." — "T/ie Accomplish- 
ment of the Prophecies'' (London, 1687), part 2, p. 265. 

And so it came to pass. Far beyond France the movement 
reached. Canon Trevor says of the wave of revolt against 
absolutism that passed over Europe: 

"It is worthy of observation that only those nations which eschewed 
popery were able to resist the tide. Every throne and every church, 
without exception, that owned the supremacy of Rome, was prostrated 
in the dust." — "Rome and Its Papal Rulers," p. 436. 

The decree of the French Convention in 1793 was followed 
by the stroke with the sword at Rome in 1798. The full 
history is told in fewest words by a Roman Catholic writer, 
Rev. Joseph Rickaby, of the Jesuit Society: 

"When, in 1797, Pope Pius VI fell grievously ill. Napoleon gave 
orders that in the event of his death no successor should be elected to his 
office, and that the Papacy should be discontinued. 

"But the Pope recovered. The peace was soon broken; Berthier 
entered Rome on the tenth of February, 1798, and proclaimed a republic. 
The aged pontiff refused to violate his oath by recognizing it, and was 
hurried from prison to prison in France. Broken with fatigue and sor- 
rows, he died on the nineteenth of August, 1799, in the French fortress 
of Valence, aged eighty-two years. No wonder that half Europe thought 
Napoleon's veto would be obeyed, and that with the Pope the Papacy 
was dead." — "The Modern Papacy," p. 1 {Catholic Truth Society, London). 

These events of the French Revolution marked the ending 
of the prophetic period of papal supremacy. A "deadly 
wound" had been given the Papacy. And the blow with 
the sword at Rome was struck in 1798, just 1260 years from 
the year 538, when the sword of empire struck that decisive 
blow against the Goths at Rome, and prepared the way for 
the new order of popes, the kingly rulers of church and state. 

Of the condition of the Papacy at this time Canon Trevor 

says: 



142 Our Day in the Ldqht of Prophecy 

"The Papacy was extinct: not a vestige of its existence remained; 
and among all the Roman Catholic powers not a finger was stirred in its 
defense. The Eternal City had no longer prince or pontiff; its bishop 
was a dying captive in foreign lands; and the decree was already an- 
nounced that no successor would be allowed in his place." — "Rome and 
Its Papal Rulers," p. 440. 

''No wonder that half Europe," the Jesuit writer says, 
"thought Napoleon's veto would be obeyed, and that with 
the Pope the Papacy was dead." But he adds that ''since 
then the Papacy has been lifted to a pinnacle of spiritual 
power" unreached before. 

The stroke dealt the Papacy by the French Revolution 
was not to be the ending of it, by any means, according to 
the prophecy. These events proclaimed the ending of the 
prophetic period of special supremacy. Another prophecy 
distinctly indicates that following the deadly blow there would 
come a revival of the Papacy's influence, just as the Catholic 
writer describes it. The prophet John, speaking of this same 
power, says: 

"I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and 
his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered 
after the beast. . . . And they worshiped the beast, saying, 
Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with 
him?" Rev. 13:3, 4. 

We see the healing process still going on, with evidences 
multiplying that the world is more and more wondering after 
the papal power. 

A New Era of Liberty and Enlightenment 

With the ending of the 1260 years of papal supremacy, a 
new order was ushered in. The Papacy had stood for abso- 
lutism in state as well as church. Now the power of abso- 
lutism was broken. "Absolute monarchy," Edmund Burke 
said at the time, "breathed its last without a struggle." There 
came the dawn of an era of greater religious liberty and en- 
lightenment, that has spread blessings over all lands. 



The Dawn of a New Era 143 

The prophecy had said of the Papacy, that the saints 
and the times and laws of the Most High were to be "given 
into his hand" for 1260 years. As foretold in Christ's proph- 
ecy (Matt. 24 : 22) , these days of the tribulation of God's 
saints were "shortened." The power of the Reformation 
weakened the oppressing hand, even before the prophetic 
period ran out. And when the full 1260 years closed, the 
world saw the grip of that papal hand yet further loosened, 
and God's providence at work preparing the way for a world- 
wide proclamation of His gospel, bearing witness against the 
perversions of the papal apostasy, and restoring to men the 
Word and laws of the Most High. 

The record of history witnesses that this time prophecy 
of the 1260 years of papal supremacy was exactly fulfilled. 
The Lord speaks in prophecy that men may know that He is 
the living God. In these time prophecies of His Word, He 
gives assurance not only that this troubled world has not 
escaped from the hand of its Maker, but that its times are in 
His hand also; and that when the time of His divine purpose 
fully comes. He will surely cut His work short in righteous- 
ness, and end the reign of sin on earth. 

As the prophetic period of Dan. 7 : 25 meets its fulfilment 
in the history of the Papacy, even so, we shall see, the work 
of the Roman Church answers to the further specifications 
regarding the doings of this "little horn" of Daniel's prophecy. 




THE TRIPLE CROWN 



The Pope's Tiara, from a photograph taken 
in the Vatican at Rome. 




HUGUENOTS IN PRISON 
FOR THEIR FAITH 



Others had trial ... of bonds and 
imprisonment." Heb. 11:36. 



THE WORK OF THE "LITTLE HORN" 

POWER 

The prophetic picture of the rise and work of the "little 
horn" finds its exact counterpart in the history of the Roman 
Papacy: 

The Place. — The little horn was seen by the prophet 
rising in the field of the Roman Empire. That was the very 
place where the great kingdom of the Papacy appeared, taking 
the name of Roman. 

The Time, — The rise of the ecclesiastical kingdom of 
the little-horn power in the prophecy followed the breaking 
up of the Roman Empire into the ten Idngdoms. Just so the 
ecclesiastical kingdom of the Roman Papacy rises to view in 
history immediately following the division of the empire. 

The Period of Supremacy. — The prophecy allotted 1260 

years to the full supremacy of this power. History responds 

that from the beginning of the papal supremacy, in the days 

of Justinian, a period of 1260 years brings us into the stirring 

10 145 



The Work of the ''Little Horn'' Power 147 

events of the last decade of the eighteenth century, that gave 
to the Papacy a deadly wound. 

One further set of specifications remains for study: 

The Work. — Of the nature and work of the power rep- 
resented by the little horn, the prophecy declares: 

''He shall speak great words against the Most High, and 
shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to 
change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand 
until a time and times and the dividing of time." Dan. 7: 25. 

Do we find in the record that the Church of Rome has 
fulfilled these specifications also? The Scripture prophecy 
is absolutely a word-photograph of the workings of the papal 
church. Look at the main features: 

1. Speaking great words against the Most High. 

2. Wearing out the saints of the Most High. 

3. Thinking to change the times and the laws of the Most 
High. 

Every count in the indictment may be clearly proved, 
and that by testimony from Roman Catholic sources 

**He Shall Speak Great Words Against the 

Most High " 

As Daniel observed the little-horn power, he heard it 
speaking ''very great things." The angel declared that these 
great swelHng words were really against the Most High. And 
what could be more against the honor of the Most High than 
that to mortal man should be ascribed the titles and attri- 
butes of divinity? Here are some of the "great words:" 

"All the names which are attributed to Christ in Scripture, implying 
His supremacy over the church, are also attributed to the Pope." — Bel- 
larmine, "On the Authority of Councils,'' book 2, chap. 17. 

This ruling has been actually applied through the ages. 

Says Elhott: 

"Look at the SiciUan ambassadors prostrated before him [Pope 
Martin IV] with the cry, 'Lamb of God! that takest away the Bins of 
the world!'" — "Horoe Apocalypticce," part 4) chap. 5, sec. 2. 



The Work of the "Little Horn'' Power 149 

"The Pope is of so great dignity and excellence, that he is not merely 
man, but as if God, and the vicar of God (non sit simplex homo, sed quasi 
Deus, et Dei vicarius). The Pope alone is called most holy, . . . divine 
monarch, and supreme emperor, and king of kings. . . . The Pope is of 
so great dignity and power that he constitutes one and the same tribunal 
with Christ {facial unum et idem tribunal cum Christo), so that whatsoever 
the Pope does seems to proceed from the mouth of God {ah ore Dei) J' — 
'^Prom,pta Bibliotheca'' {Ferraris), art. "Papa;^' Ferraris' s Ecclesiastical 
Dictionary {Roman Catholic), art. "The Pope." Quoted in Guinness' s 
"Romanism and the Reformation," p. 16. 

These are no merely extravagant adulations of the Dark 
Ages, to be repudiated by the moderns; these terms express 
the unchanging doctrinal claims of the Roman Church, that 
put man in the place of God. The modern Pope Leo XIII, 
in an encyclical letter dated June 20, 1894, repeated the 
claim : 

"We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty." — "The Great 
Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII" {New York, Benziger Brothers), p. 304- 

Thus does the Papacy ''speak great words against the 
Most High." 

**And Shall Wear Out the Saints of the 
Most High" 

All through the Dark Ages we catch glimpses of the ruth- 
less hand of Rome laid upon simple believers in God's Holy 
Word; but plans for wholesale wearing out of the saints of 
God were devised as the Waldenses and others rose to a wide- 
spread work of witnessing, heralds of the dawn of the coming 
Reformation, — 

"These who gave earhest notice, 
As the lark 
Springs from the ground the morn to gratulate; 
Who, rather, rose the day to antedate, 
By striking out a solitafy spark. 

When all the world with midnight gloom was dark — 
The harbingers of good whom bitter hate 
In vain endeavored to exterminate." 

— Wordsworth, 



150 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

Pope Innocent III gave orders concerning them as fol- 
lows : 

"Therefore by this present apostoHcal writing, we give you a strict 
command that, by whatever means you can, you destroy all these here- 
sies and expel from your diocese all who are polluted with them. You 
shall exercise the rigor of ecclesiastical power against them and all those 
who have made themselves suspected by associating with them. They 
may not appeal from your judgments, and, if necessary, you may cause 
the princes and people to suppress them with the sword." — Quoted from 
Migne, 214, col. 71, in Thatcher and McNeaVs "Source Book for Medieval 
History,'' p. 210. 

As the truth spread, so also the papal church redoubled 

its efforts by sword and flame. The historian Lecky 

says: 

"That the Church of Rome has shed more innocent blood than any 
other institution that has ever existed among mankind, will be questioned 
by no Protestant who has a competent knowledge of history. The memo- 
rials, indeed, of many of her persecutions are now so scanty that it is 
impossible to form a complete conception of the multitude of her victims, 
and it is quite certain that no powers of imagination can adequately 
realize their sufiferings." — "History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit 
of Rationalism in Europe," Vol. II, p. 32. 

Motley, in his ''Rise of the Dutch Republic" (part 3, 

chap, 2), tells how PhiUp II of Spain — who declared that 

he would "never consent to be the sovereign of heretics" — 

sent the Duke of Alva to take over the Netherlands: 

"Early in the year the most sublime sentence of death was promul- 
gated which has ever been pronounced since the creation of the world. 
The Roman tyrant [Nero] wished that his enemies' heads were all upon 
a single neck, that he might strike them off at a blow; the Inquisition 
assisted PhiHp to place the heads of all his Netherlands subjects upon a 
single neck for the same fell purpose. Upon February 16, 1568, a sen- 
tenoe of the Holy Office condemned all the inhabitants of the Nether- 
lands to death as heretics. From this imiversal doom only a few per- 
sons, especially named, were excepted. A proclamation of the king, dated 
ten days later, confirmed this decree of the Inquisition, and ordered 
it to be carried into instant execution, without regard to age, sex, or con- 
dition. This is probably the most concise death warrant that was ever 
framed. Three millions of people, men, women, and children, were sen- 
tenced to the scaffold in three Knes." 



The Work of the "Little Horn'' Power 151 

Roman Catholic writers admit that the papal church has 
sought to exterminate what it calls heresy, by the power of 
the sword. 

The Western Watchman (St. Louis), Dec. 24, 1908, says: 

"The church has persecuted. . . . Protestants were persecuted in 
France and Spain with the full approval of the church authorities. We 
have always defended the persecution of the Huguenots, and the Spanish 
Inquisition. Wherever and whenever there is honest Catholicity, there 
wiU be a clear distinction drawn between truth and error, and Catho- 
Ucity and all forms of error. When she thinks it good to use physical 
force, she will use it." 

Prof. Alfred Baudrillart, rector of the Catholic Institute 
of Paris, says: 

"The Catholic Church is a respecter of conscience and of liberty. 
. . . She has, and she loudly proclaims that she has, a 'horror of 
blood.' Nevertheless, when confronted by heresy, she does not content 
herself with persuasion; arguments of an intellectual and moral order 
appear to her insufficient, and she has recourse to force, to corporal pun- 
ishment, to torture. She creates tribunals Uke those of the Inquisition, 
she calls the laws of the state to her aid, if necessary she encourages a 
crusade, or a religious war, and all her 'horror of blood' practically cul- 
minates into urging the secular power to shed it, which proceeding is 
almost more odious — for it is less frank — than shedding it herself. 
Especially did she act thus in the sixteenth century with regard to Prot- 
estants. Not content to reform morally, to preach by example, to con- 
vert people by eloquent and holy missionaries, she lit in Italy, in the Low 
Countries, and above all in Spain, the funeral piles of the Inquisition. 
In France under Francis I and Henry II, in England under Mary Tudor, 
she tortured the heretics, whilst both in France and Germany during the 
second half of the sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth cen- 
tury if she did not actually begin, at any rate she encouraged and 
actively aided, the religious wars." — " The Catholic Church, the Renaissance 
and Protestantism" {London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Truhner & Co., Ltd., 
1908), pp. 182, 183. 

She has done it — the Church of Rome has worn out the 
saints of the Most High. The prophet in vision saw an eccle- 
siastical kingly power rise among the kingdoms of the divided 
Roman Empire. Its look was more stout than its fellows, 
and the prophet heard it speaking "very great things," and 



The Work of the ''Little Horn'' Power 153 

saw it wearing out the saints of the Most High through the 
long centuries. 

''Guilty!" is the clear verdict of history, against the 
Church of Rome on these two counts of the prophetic indict- 
ment. 

"And Think to Change Times and Laws " 

The power that was to speak great words against the 
Most High, and to wear out the saints of the Most High, 
was further — in its self -exalting opposition to God — to as- 
sume to lay hands upon times and laws, evidently the 
times and the laws of the Most High; for to say that such 
a power would lay hands on the laws of men, changing or 
setting aside human legislation, would signify less than the 
preceding counts. This third specification states a climax 
in the indictment — the self-exalting, persecuting power was 
to lay hands upon the very law of the Most High. It is 
clearly the same power that the apostle Paul said would rise 
to dominion after his time: "Then shall be revealed the law- 
less one." 2 Thess. 2:8, A. R. V. 

God's Law Unchangeable 

Just as the laws of a government express its character, 
so the law of God is a reflection of the divine character. ''The 
law of the Lord is perfect." Ps. 19: 7. "Wherefore the law 
is holy," said the apostle, "and the commandment holy, and 
just, and good." Rom. 7: 12. 

Jesus declared, "I delight to do Thy will, My God: yea, 
Thy law is within My heart." Ps. 40: 8. And He maintained 
the unchangeable, enduring integrity of that law: "Verily I 
say unto you. Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle 
shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Matt. 
5:18. 

But in Daniel's prophecy is foretold the rise of this power 
that was to think to change the times and the laws of the 
Most High. 



154 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

Here, again, the evidence points straight to the Church of 
Rome; for it is a fact that the Papacy has laid violent hands 
on the law of God — upon the precept, too, that deals with 
sacred time — and has thought to change it. 

In a volume to be seen in the British IMuseum, dated 1545, 
the following comment on Dan. 7 : 25 is attributed to PhiHpp 
Melanchthon, the Reformer, associate of Luther (reproduced 
with the old Enghsh spelling) : 

"He changeth the t}TQes and lawes that any of the eixe worke dayes 
commanded of God will make them unholy and idle dayes when he lyste, 
or of their owne holy dayes abolished make Worke dayes agen, or when 
they changed ye Saterday into Sondaye. . . . They have changed God's 
lawes and turned them into their owne tradicions to be kept above Grod's 
precepts." — " Expo&icion of Daniel the Prophete," Gathered out of Philipp 
Melanchthon, Johan Ecola?npadius, etc., hy George Joye, 1540, p. 119. 

This is exactly what the power represented by the httle 
horn was to assume to do. The commandment of God is 
plain: 

^'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days 
shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is 
the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any 
work. . . . For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, 
the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: 
wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed 
it." Ex. 20:8-11. 

A Change in Practice 

But in general practice there has been a change — the 
first day is commonly observed instead of the seventh day, 
which the Lord declares he blessed and made holy. The Ro- 
man Cathohc Church points exultingly to the fact that this 
change, so universally allowed today, has come about solely 
through church tradition without Scriptural authoritj^ For 
instance, one Cathohc writer says: 

"You wiU teU me that Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath, but that 
the Christian Sabbath has been changed to Sunday. Changed I but by 
whom? TMio has authority to change an express commandment of Al- 



The Work of the ''Little Horn'' Power 155 

mighty God? When God has spoken and said, Thou shalt keep holy 
the seventh day, who shall dare to say, Nay, thou mayest work and 
do all manner of worldly business on the seventh day; but thou shalt 
keep holy the first day in its stead? This is a most important question, 
which I know not how you can answer. 

"You are a Protestant, and you profess to go by the Bible and the 
Bible only; and yet in so important a matter as the observance of one day 
in seven as a holy day, you go against the plain letter of the Bible, and put 
another day in the place of that day which the Bible has commanded. 
The command to keep holy the seventh day is one of the ten command- 
ments; you believe that the other nine are still binding; who gave you 
authority to tamper with the fourth? If you are consistent with your 
own principles, if you reaUy follow the Bible and the Bible only, you 
ought to be able to produce some portion of the New Testament in which 
this fourth commandment is expressly altered." — '^ Library of Christian 
Doctrine: Why Don't You Keep the Holy Sabbath Day?" (Burns and Oates, 
London), p. 3. 

Every one who studies the question must recognize the 
fact that there is no change authorized in Scripture. As 
Canon E5rton, of the Church of England, says: 

"There is no word, no hint, in the New Testament about abstaining 
from work on Sunday. . . . Into the rest of Sunday no divine law enters." 
— "The Ten Commandmeiits" {Trubner & Co.), London. 

Dr. Heylyn, of the Church of England, wrote: 

"Take which you wiU, either the Fathers or the moderns, and we 
shall find no Lord's day instituted by any apostohcal mandate; no Sab- 
bath set on foot by them upon the first day of the week." — '^History 
of the Sabbath," part 2, chap. 1. 

Authorities, both Protestant and CathoKc, freely acknowl- 
edge that there is no divine authority for Sunday keeping. 
There has been a change in practice and teaching, but with 
no Scriptural authority. 

What the Papacy Claims 

The prophecy of Daniel 7 forewarned all that the ecclesi- 
astical power that was to rise upon the division of the Roman 
Empire would think to change the times and the laws of the 
Most High. The Papacy steps forward and claims boldly 
that the church has power to set aside Scripture, to institute 



156 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

holy times, and even to change the day made holy and com- 
manded by the Almighty as the day of rest for His people. 
In a Catholic work, "An Abridgment of the Christian 
Doctrine/' by Dr. Henry Turberville, page 61, we read: 

"Question. — By whom was the change [of the Sabbath] made? 

"Answer. — By the rulers of the church, the apostles who kept the 
Lord's day. . . . 

"Ques. — How do you prove that the church hath power to estab- 
Hsh feasts and holy days? 

"Ans. — By the very fact of changing the Sabbath to Sunday; this 
change Protestants allow; and therefore they contradict themselves by 
keeping Sunday strictly and breaking most other feasts commanded by 
the same chui'ch. 

"Ques. — How prove you that? 

"Ans. — Because by keeping Sunday they acknowledge the church's 
power to ordain feasts and to command them under sin; and by not keep- 
ing the rest commanded by her, they deny that she has power." 

It is the doctrine taught in the standard catechisms of the 
Roman Church: 

"Question. — Have you any other way of proving that the church 
has power to institute festivals of precept? 

"Answer. — Had she not such power, she could not have done that 
in which all modern rehgionists agree with her, — she could not have 
substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the 
observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no 
Scriptural authority." — Keenan's "Doctrinal Catechism/' p. 174. 

Thus the Papacy proclaims itself the power that has 
thought to change the precepts of the Most High. 

On every count, the Roman Church is the counterpart of 
the little horn of Daniel 7. Before our eyes — in the com- 
mon practice of Christendom — the conunandment of God 
regarding sacred time is made void by the traditions of men. 

The prophecy indicated that there would come a caU for 
a reformation in this matter. Speaking of the warfare against 
the saints and the times and laws of the Most High, to be 
waged by the little-horn power, the angel said: 

"They shall be given into his hand until a time and times 
and the dividing of time.'' Dan. 7:25. 



• The Work of the ''Little Horn'' Power 157 

In other words, when the 1260 years should expire, we 
should expect, according to the prophecy, to see a breaking 
of the Papacy's persecuting power over behevers, a spread- 
ing abroad of the Holy Scriptures, and a work of reformation 
that would lift up the truths of God's Word, and call be- 
lievers to keep once again the holy time and the holy law 
of the Most High. 

The prophecy of Daniel 7 is one of God's special messages 
for all men in these last days, picturing the rise and history 
of the Papacy, and warning all against accepting its perver- 
sions of God's truth or recognizing its attempted change in 
the law of the Most High. Thank God for the ''sure word 
of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto 
a light that shineth in a dark place." We are to foUow the 
Lord and obey him, not this power that has risen up in op- 
position to him. 

The angel's interpretation in this chapter does not leave 
the apostasy triumphant: 

"The judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his 
dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end." 

Then the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms 
of the Most High, ''and all dominions shall serve and obey 
Him.'" 



"O, how shall we stand that moment of searching, 
When all our sins those books reveal? 
When from that court, each case decided, 
Shall be granted no appeal?" 




CHRIST AND THE 
SCRIBES 



In vain they do worship Me, teaching 
for doctrines the commandments of 
men." Matt. 15:9. 




CREATION 



'In six days the Lord made heaven 
and earth, . . . and rested the sev- 
enth day." Ex. 20:11. 



THE BIBLE SABBATH 



"He answered and said, Every plant, which My heavenly 
Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.'' Matt. 15: 13. 

The scribes had come to Jesus with the complaint, "Why 
do Thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?" 
Jesus answered them with another question, "Why do ye also 
transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?" 

They had thought that Christ was introducing novelties, 
preaching new things, contrary to established church cus- 
tom and practice. He showed them that He really stood for 
the old and established things of God's Word, and that their 
own religious customs, however old, were really the novelties, 
without divine authority. He said, 

"In vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the 
commandments of men." And finally He added the words 
quoted above, " Every plant, which My heavenly Father hath 
not planted, shall be rooted up." 

Let the principles be applied to the question of Sabbath 
observance. Sometimes in our day those who preach the 

159 



160 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

word of God regarding the abiding holiness of the seventh- 
day Sabbath are accused of preaching new doctrines, con- 
trary to the traditions and customs of the church. But really, 
the observance of Sunday, the first day, is the innovation; 
the seventh-day Sabbath is of ancient foundation. 

Is the Seventh-day Sabbath a Plant of Our Heavenly 

Father's Planting ? 

Which of these two institutions has our heavenly Father 
planted? It is possible to ascertain to a surety; for every 
plant of His planting, every doctrine of His truth, will be 
found rooted in the Holy Scriptures. 2 Tim. 3: 16, 17. 

The Old Testament Record 

From the Beginning. — When the Creator made the earth 
and man upon it. He made the seventh day of the weekly 
cycle His holy Sabbath. 

''Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all 
the host of them. . . . And God blessed the seventh day, and 
sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His 
work which God created and made." Gen. 2: 1-3. 

To sanctify is ''to set apart," and so the day made holy 
and blessed by God was set apart for man. Then it was, as 
Jesus said, that "the Sabbath was made for man." Mark 
2 : 27. Here the Sabbath institution was planted at the be- 
ginning of the world. 

At the Exodus. — The people of Israel, in their bondage in 
Egypt, had faUen away from the knowledge of God and be- 
come corrupted by the idolatrous worship of Egypt. Hence, 
as the Lord called them out to be His people. He tested their 
loyalty to His law by observing how they regarded His holy 
Sabbath : 

"Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I wiU rain 
bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and 
gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, 
whether they will walk in My law, or no." Ex. 16:4, 



The Bible Sabbath 



161 



So through the forty years the Lord sent the manna for 
them to gather on the six working days, withholding it on the 
Sabbath. (This scripture shows also that the Sabbath was a 
part of God's law before He spoke it from Sinai.) 

At Sinai. — When the time came that the Lord would 
speak His holj^ law from heaven, the eternal foundation of 




HOREB, THE SACRED MOUNT 



A modern view of the summit 
of Mt. Sinai. 



His moral government, the Sabbath precept was enshrined in 
the heart of it: 

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days 
shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day 
is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do 
any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manserv- 
ant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger 
that is within thy gates : for in six days the Lord made heaven 
and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the 
seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, 
and hallowed it." Ex. 20:8-11. 
11 



162 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

Through IsraeVs History. — Sabbath keeping was the great 
mark of loyalty to God. When Israel fell mto idolatry, they 
''observed times'' (see 2 Kings 21:6), — doubtless such hea- 
then festivals to the sun god and other deities as were com- 
mon among the idolatrous nations. These observances of 
other days meant Sabbath brealdng. ''Neither shall ye . . . 
observe times. ... Ye shall keep My Sabbaths." Lev. 19: 
26-30. The Lord had promised concerning Jerusalem: 

"If ye dihgently hearken unto Me, saith the Lord, to 
bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sab- 
bath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein; 
then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and 
princes sitting upon the throne of David, . . . and this city 
shaU remain forever." Jer. 17:24, 25. 

The divine pleading was slighted, and Jerusalem's fall and 
the Babylonian captivity came as the result of the Israehtes' 
disregard of God's holy day. 

Thus throughout the inspired record of the Old Testa- 
ment the seventh-day Sabbath appears as a plant of the 
heavenly Father's own planting. 

The New Testament Record 

The Example and Teaching of Jesus. — It was Christ's 
"custom" to worship on the seventh day. Luke 4: 16. 

Jesus, who Himself made the Sabbath at creation (John 
1:3), taught that it was "made for man," — for the human 
race, — and declared, "The Son of man is Lord also of the 
Sabbath." Mark 2:27 28. It is, therefore, "the Lord's 
day." Rev. 1:10. 

He did on the Sabbath only that which was "lawful," 
or according to the law of God's holy day. Matt. 12: 12. 

He kept His Father's commandments throughout His 
earthly life. John 15: 10. 

And giving instruction regarding events to take place 
many years after His ascension. He. showed that He recog- 



The Bible Sabbath 



163 



iiized the continued existence of the Sabbath in the command, 
''Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on 
the Sabbath day." Matt. 24:20. 

Among New Testament Disciples. — The women, after the 
crucifixion, "rested the Sabbath day according to the com- 
mandment." Luke 23:56. 




CHRIST HEALING THE MAN 
WITH A WITHERED HAND 



"It is lawful to do well on the Sabbath 
days." Matt. 12,:,12. 



Inspiration says that the apostle Paul's custom was to 
preach the gospel publicly Sabbath after Sabbath. Acts 
13: 14; 16: 13; 17: 1, 2; 18: 4. When the Gentiles of Antioch 
heard the gospel preached by the apostle one Sabbath, they 
'besought that these words might be preached to them the 
next Sabbath." Acts 13:42. 

Throughout the New Testament, written years after Christ's 
ascension, the Holy Spirit, speaking of the seventh day, calls 
it "the Sabbath" upwards of fifty times. "Sabbath" means 



164 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

rest; therefore when the Holy Spirit, in the Christian age, 
calls the seventh day the rest day, it must infaUibly be the 
day of rest for Christians, the Christian Sabbath. 

In the Le\dtical or sacrificial ordinances of the sanctuary 
services there were annual sabbaths and feasts, associated 
with meats and drinks and ceremonial observances. But in 
appointmg these the Lord specifically distinguished between 
them and the one and only weekly Sabbath, which was from 
the beginning. ''These are the feasts of the Lor4," He said, 
''beside the Sabbaths of the Lord." Lev. 23: 37, 38. 

The annual festivals and sabbaths, hke all the ordinances 
of the Levitical service, were shadows of things to come, and 
found their fulfilment in the great sacrifice of Calvary. Col. 
2:16, 17. 

But the Sabbath of the Lord was made blessed and holy 
by God at the creation, before sin had entered the world, 
before any sacrificial or shadowy service was instituted to 
point to a coming Redeemer. It is a fundamental and pri- 
mary institution, a part of the moral order of God's govern- 
ment for man, the same as the obligations set forth in each 
of the other commandments. 

And Inspiration declares the eternal perpetuity of the 
blessed Sabbath day in the future home of the saved, when the 
prophet describes the felicity of the redeemed, as from month 
to month, and "from one Sabbath to another," aU flesh shall 
come to worship before the Lord. Isa. 66: 23. 

Thus we find the seventh-day Sabbath a plant of the 
heavenly Father's planting, rooted deep in all Holy Scrip- 
ture, and abiding eternally in the world to come. 

Is the First-day Rest an Institution of God's 

Planting? 

In the beginning, the first day was employed by God in 
the work of creation. Gen. 1 : 1-5. 

Throughout aU the Old Testament history it was one of 
''the six working days." Eze. 46: 1. 



The Bible Sahhath 165 

It was the day of Christ^s resurrection ; but Inspiration says 
specifically that ''the Sabbath was past" when that ''first 
day of the week" came. Mark 16: 1, 2. Inspiration called 
this first day merely by the ordinary secular name in common 
business use, with never a suggestion of attaching any sacred- 
ness to the day. For some of the disciples it was a day of 
journeying, in which the risen Christ joined them. Luke 
24: 13-29. Later He appeared to the other disciples in Jeru- 
salem, gathered not in meeting, but at supper in their common 
dwelling house. Mark 16: 14. 

The only religious meeting recorded as occurring on the 
first day of the week was that held at Troas. (See Acts 20: 
6-13.) The context shows that it was an evening meeting, 
after the Sabbath, — Saturday night, as we would call it, 
for the Bible reckoning is from evening to evening. It was 
the last time the believers were ever to see the apostle's face, 
and as they lingered after the close of the Sabbath, he held 
an all-night farewell meeting, breaking bread with the be- 
lievers, and leaving at daybreak Sunday morning for the 
eighteen- or twenty-mile journey afoot, across country to 
Assos. And while he spent the first day traveling afoot, 
his companions were journeying by boat. 

Conybeare and Howson (of the Church of England) , in that 

standard work, ''Life and Epistles of St. Paul," tell the plain 

fact of the inspired record, save that manifestly they should not 

have applied the title "Jewish" to God's Sabbath; for it was 

not the Sabbath of the Jews, but "the Sabbath of the Lord 

thy God:" 

"It was the evening which succeeded the Jewish Sabbath. On the 
Sunday morning the vessel was about to sail." — Chapter 20, p. 520. 

Describing the road between Troas and Assos, they add : 

"Strength and peace were surely sought and obtained by the apostle 
fron. the Redeemer as he pursued his lonely road that Sunday afternoon 
in spring among the oak woods and the streams of Ida." — Id., p. 522. 

Once again the "first day of the week" is mentioned, in 
1 Cor. 16: 2. But that scripture says no word of any sacred- 



166 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

ness of the day or of any religious observance of it. The 
apostle was gathering a fund for the poor at Jerusalem, and 
asked every behever to ''lay by" something every first day 
of the week, so that the money would be ready when he came. 
As Dean Stanley (Church of England) comments: 

"There is nothing to prove public assemblies, iaasmuch as the phrase 
Trap' eavT^ ('by himself, at his own house') implies that the collection was 
to be made iudividually and iri private." 

And Neander's Church History says: 

"All mentioned here is easUy explained, if one simply thinks of the 
ordinary beginning of the week in secular life." — Vol. I, p. 339 {Germaned.) . 

To meet the emergency of need in Judea, these behevers 
were asked to look over their business affairs at the beginning 
of each week, until Paul should come, laying aside a gift as 
God had prospered them. 

No Sunday Sacredness in the New Testament 

This is the record — not one suggestion in all the New 

Testament of Sunday sacredness, to say nothing of precept 

or commandment of the Lord. The late R. W. Dale, D. D., 

a leading Congregationalist of England, wrote: 

"It is quite clear that, however rigidly or devotedly we may spend 
Sunday, we are not keeping the Sabbath. . . . The Sabbath was founded 
on a specific, diviue command. We can plead no such command for the 
observance of Sunday. . . . There is not a single hne in the New Testa- 
ment to suggest that we incur any penalty by violating the supposed 
sanctity of Sunday." — "The Ten Commandments," pp. 106, 107. 

That religious classic, Smith and Cheetham's ''Dictionary 

of Christian Antiquities," says that the "notion of a formal 

substitution" of the first day for the seventh, 

"and the transference to it, perhaps in a spirituahzed form, of the 
Sabbatical obHgation estabhshed by the promulgation of the fourth 
commandment, has no basis whatever, either in Holy Scripture or in 
Christian antiquity." — Article "Sahhath." 

Dr. E. F. Hiscox, author of ''The Baptist Manual,'' says: 

"There was and is a commandment to 'keep holy the Sabbath day,' 
but that Sabbath was not Sunday. It will, however, be readily said, 



The Bible Sahhatk 167 

and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath was transferred from 
the seventh to the j&rst day of the week. . . . Where can the record of 
such a transaction be found? Not in the New Testament — absolutely 
not." — The New York Examiner, Nov. 16, 1893. 

Such declarations by well-known scholars might be mul- 
tiplied, but it is not necessary. The record is open — any 
one may see it. There is not a word in the Holy Scripture 
of any first-day sacredness. The Sunday institution is not 
a plant of our heavenly Father's planting. 

How the Change Came About 

There has been no change of the Sabbath by divine author- 
ity. Men may choose to rest on any other day, but that can- 
not make such a day God's rest day. His holy Sabbath. One 
cannot change one's birthday by celebrating another day as 
such. It is a fact of history that on a certain day of the month 
one was born. That fact cannot be changed by choosing to 
celebrate another day as the birthday. Just so it is a fact 
of divine history that God rested on a given day of the week, 
and on no other. That made the seventh day His rest day. 

It is different from other days in character also, for He 
blessed it and made it holy. To deny the difference between 
common days and the holy day is to say that when the great 
Creator blesses and makes holy, it is a vain performance. 
That cannot be. It would take away all hope of holiness 
or salvation for men. The blessing is upon the day, as every 
soul finds who keeps it by faith. 

When men choose to set apart another day than that 
blessed and sanctified of God, it is plainly a setting up of 
the humanly appointed time against the divinely appointed 
time. It is exalting man's sabbath against God's Sabbath. 
It is man exalting himself "above all that is caUed God.'' 
2 Thess. 2:4. 

This was what made the Roman Papacy. The apostle 
Paul wrote that in his day the spirit of lawlessness was already 
working. He said it would lead to a ''falling away" from the 



The Bible Sabbath 169 

truth of God, and the full exaltation of the man of sin. 
2 Thessalonians 2. The falling away came. As Dr. Killen 
(Presbyterian), of Ireland, says in the preface to his "Ancient 
Church:" 

"In the interval between the days of the apostles and the conversion 
of Constantine, the Christian commonwealth changed its aspect. . . . 
Rites and ceremonies, of which neither Paul nor Peter ever heard, crept 
into use, and then claimed the rank of divine institutions." 

In his "Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine,'^ 
Cardinal Newman (Roman Catholic) tells how rites and cere- 
monies were borrowed from paganism: 

"Confiding then in the power of Christianity to resist the infection 
of evil, and to transmute the very instruments and appendages of demon 
worship to an evangehcal use, . . . the rulers of the church from early- 
times were prepared, should the occasion arise, to adopt, or imitate, or 
sanction the existing rites and customs of the populace, as well as the 
philosophy of the educated class." — • Pages 371, 372. 

Thus along with other adaptations came "the venerable 
day of the sun" (Sunday). It was by gradual process that 
it supplanted the Sabbath. Sir Wilham Domville wrote: 

"Centuries of the Christian era passed away before Sunday was 
observed by the Christian church as a Sabbath. History does not fur- 
nish us with a single proof or indication that it was at any time so ob- 
served previous to the Sabbatical edict of Constantine in a. d. 321." — 
^^Examination of Six Texts," p. 291. 

This law of Constantine's was as follows: 

"On the venerable day of the sun let the magistrates and people 
residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, 
however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue 
their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not so suit- 
able for grain sowing or for vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper 
moment for such operations, the bounty of heaven should be lost. (Given 
the 7th day of March, Crispus and Constantine being consuls each of them 
for the second time.)" ■ — Schaff, "History of the Christian Church," Vol. 
Ill, chap. 5, sec. 75. 

Commenting on this law, Prof. Hutton Webster, of the 
University of Nebraska, says: 

"This legislation by Constantine probably bore no relation to Chris- 
tianity; it appears, on the contrary, that the emperor, in his capacity of 



170 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

Pontifex Maximus, was only adding the day of the sun, the worship of 
which was then firmly estabhshed in the Roman Empire, to the other 
ferial days of the sacred calendar." 

"What began, however, as a pagan ordinance, ended as a Christian 
regulation; and a long series of imperial decrees, during the fourth, fifth, 
and sixth centuries, enjoined with increasing stringency abstinence from 
labor on Sunday."— "i?es^ Days," pp. 122, 270. 

Dean Stanley (Church of England) writes: 

"The retention of the old pagan name Dies Solis, or Sunday, for the 
weekly Christian festival, is, in a great measure, owing to the luiion of 
pagan and Christian sentiment with which the first day of the week was 
recommended by Constantine to his subjects, pagan and Christian alike, 
as the 'venerable day of the sun.'" — "History of the Eastern Church," 
lecture 6, par. 15. 

Thus the Sunday institution comes in, marked by its 
pagan origin, and adapted to ecclesiastical purposes by the 
church of the ^'faUing away" that grew into the Roman Pa- 
pacy. To quote again from the Baptist author, Dr. Hiscox: 

"Of course, I quite well know that Sunday did come into use in early 
Christian history as a religious day, as we learn from the Christian Fathers 
and other sources. But what a pity that it comes branded with the mark 
of paganism, and christened with the name of the sun god, when adopted 
and sanctioned by the papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy 
to Protestantism." — New York Examiner, Nov. 16, 1893. 

• No wonder that with the coming of the latter days, and 
the proclamation of the message of preparation for Christ's 
second coming, there should come a call to Christians to fol- 
low Christ and Holy Scripture in keeping God's holy Sabbath. 

Again the voice of Jesus is heard in protest against tra- 
ditions that make void the commandment of God. 

''Every plant," He says, ''which My heavenly Father hath 
not planted, shall be rooted up." Matt. 15: 13. 



The Bible Sabbath 171 



Made for Man 

The God that made the earth, 

And all the worlds on high, 

Who gave all creatures birth, 

In earth, and sea, and sky, 

After six days in work employed. 

Upon the seventh a rest enjoyed. 

The Sabbath day was blessed, 
Hallowed, and sanctified; 
It was Jehovah's rest. 

And so it must abide; 
'Twas set apart before the fall, 
'Twas made for man, 'twas made for all. 

And when from Sinai's mount, 
Amidst the fire and smoke, 
Jehovah did recount. 

And all His precepts spoke. 
He claimed the rest day as His own, 
And wrote it with His law on stone. 

The Son of God appeared . 

With tidings of great joy; 
God's precepts He revered, 
He came not to destroy; 
None of the law was set aside, 
But every tittle ratified. 

Our Saviour did not die 

To render null and void 
The law of the Most High, 

Which cannot be destroyed; 
But, bruised for us, our stripes He bore, — 
We'll go in peace and sin no more. 

— R. F. Cottrell. 




RETURNING FROM THE 
SAVIOUR'S TOMB 



They returned, . . . and rested the 
Sabbath day according to the com- 
mandment." Luke 23:56. 



GLIMPSES OF SABBATH KEEPING AFTER 
NEW TESTAMENT TIMES 

Not at once did the innovation of Sunday observance 
set aside the Sabbath of the Lord in the practice of even the 
general church. And through history, when the general 
church had fallen away, we catch glimpses here and there of 
faithful witnesses to God's holy Sabbath truth. 

First Centuries 

An old English writer. Professor Brerewood, of Gresham 
College, London, put in shortest phrase what many writers say : 

"They know little who do not know that the ancient Sabbath did 
remain and was observed by the Eastern churches three hundred years 
after our Saviour's passion." — '' Treatise on the Sabbath,'' p. 77. 

Fourth Century 

Canon 29, of the Council of Laodicea (a. d. 364), shows 
that the ecclesiastical system was laboring to put an end to 
Sabbath keeping: 

173 



174 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

" Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday [the Sabbath], 
but shall work on that day; but the Lord's day [as they called Sunday] 
they shall especially honor, and, as being Christians, shall, if possible, 
do no work on that day. If, however, they be found Judaizing, they 
shall be shut out from Christ." — Hefele, '' History of the Councils of the 
Church," Vol. II, book 6, sec. 93, canon 29. 

Fifth Century 

Sozomen's Ecclesiastical History shows Rome evidently 
leading in the effort to aboKsh any recognition whatever of 
the Sabbath: 

"The people of Constantinople, and of several other cities, assemble 
together on the Sabbath, as well as on the next day; which custom is 
never observed at Rome, or at Alexandria." — Book 7, cha-p. 19, 

Seventh Century 

There were true Sabbath keepers in Rome itself, teaching 

the truth of God among the people, and bringing upon 

themselves the denunciation of Pope Gregory the Great, who 

wrote "to his most beloved sons the Roman citizens:" 

"It has come to my ears that certain men of perverse spirit have sown 
among you some things that are wrong and opposed to the holy faith, 
so as to forbid any work being done on the Sabbath day. What else 
can I call these but preachers of Antichrist?" — "History of the Councils" 
{Labbe and Cossart), Vol. V, col. 1511; see also "Nicene and Post-Nicene 
Fathers," Vol XIII, book 13, epistle 1. 

Eleventh Century 

The Pope's legates at Constantinople (a. d. 1054) were 
called to discuss with Nicetas, ''one of the most learned men 
at that time in the East," says Bower, whose position was "that 
the Sabbath ought to be kept holy, and that priests should 
be allowed to marry." — ^^ History of the Popes /^ Vol. II, p. 358. 

The people of north Scotland, the ancient Culdee church 
founded by Columba and his followers, far removed from 
direct papal influence, was still keeping the seventh-day Sab- 
bath in the eleventh century. Of this church Andrew Lang 
says in his ''History of Scotland:" 

"They worked on Sunday, but kept Saturday in a Sabbatical man- 
ner." — Volume I, p. 93. 



Sabbath Keeping after New Testament Times 175 

Skene, in his classic work, ''Celtic Scotland," says of these 
Sabbath keepers: 

"They seemed to have followed a custom of which we find traces in 
the early monastic church of Ireland, by which they held Saturday to be 
the Sabbath, on which they rested from all their labors." — Book 2, chap. 8. 

Margaret, of England, married Malcolm the Great, the 
Scottish king, in 1069. An ardent Catholic, Queen Margaret 
at once set about Romanizing the Celtic church. She called 
in the church leaders, and held long discussions with them. 
At last, with the help and authority of her royal husband, and 
quoting the instructions of "the blessed Pope Gregory," she 
succeeded in turning the ancient Culdee church in Scotland 
away from the Sabbath. (See "Life of St. Margaret," by 
Turgot, her confessor.) 

Twelfth to Fourteenth Century 

Among the numerous sects of southern Europe and the 

Alpine valleys, that were pursued and persecuted by Rome, 

were at least some who saw and obeyed the Sabbath truth. 

Thus, of one of these bodies, the historian Goldastus says: 

"They were called Insabbatati, not because they were circumcised, 
but because they kept the Sabbath according to the Jewish law." — 
"Deutsche Biographie," Vol IX, art. "Goldast.," p. 327. 

Fifteenth Century 

Sabbath keepers in Norway drew the condemnation of a 

church council held in 1435: 

"The archbishop and the clergy assembled in this provincial council 
at Bergen do decide that the keeping of Saturday must never be permitted 
to exist, except as granted in the church law." — Keyser's " Norske Kirkes 
Historie," Vol. II, p. 488. 

Sixteenth Century 

With the setting free of the Word of God by the Reforma- 
tion, and the protest against the doctrine of papal tradition, 
multitudes saw that the Sunday institution was not of divine 
origin; while not a few went farther, recognizing the claims 
of God's Sabbath. Moravia was a refuge, in those early Ref- 



Sabbath Keeping after New Testament Times 177 

ormation days, for many believers in the Reformed doctrines, 
and among these were Sabbath-keeping Christians: 

"Even most prominent men, as the princes of Lichtenstein, held to 
the observance of the true Sabbath. When persecution finally scattered 
them, the seeds of truth must have been sown by them in the different 
portions of the Continent which they visited. . . . We have found them 
[Sabbath keepers] in Bohemia, They were also known in Silesia and 
Poland. Likewise they were in Holland and northern Germany. . . . 
There were at this time Sabbath keepers in France, . . . 'among whom 
were M. de la Roque, who wrote in defense of the Sabbath against Bos- 
suet, CathoHc bishop of Meaux.' That Sabbatarians again appeared in 
England by the time of the Reformation, during the reign of Queen EHza- 
beth (a. d. 1533-1603), Dr. Chambers testifies in his Cyclopedia [art. 
'Sabbath']. " — Andrews and Conradi, '^History of the Sabhath," pp. 649, 650. 

In this century also, Sabbath keepers appeared in Nor- 
way, Sweden, and Finland. In 1554 King Gustavus Vasa, of 
Sweden, addressed a letter of remonstrance *Ho the common 
people in Finland," because so many were turning to keep 
the seventh day. 

Seventeenth Century 

There was much discussion in England over the authority 
for Sunday observance. When other church festivals were 
ignored, as Easter, King Charles I wanted to know why Sun- 
day should be kept. He wrote: 

" It will not be found in Scripture where Saturday is discharged to be 
kept, or turned into the Sunday; wherefore it must be the church's au- 
thority that changed the one and instituted the other; therefore my opin- 
ion is that those who will not keep this feast [Easter] may as well return 
to the observation of Saturday, and refuse the weekly Sunday." — Cox, 
"Sabbath Laws," p. 333. 

It was during this time that the idea first obtained of en- 
forcing Sunday obligation by the fourth commandment and 
calling it the Sabbath. It was argued that any "one day in 
seven '^ was what the commandment meant. Of this argu- 
ment, John Milton, the statesman-poet, wrote: 

"It is impossible to extort such a sense from the words of the com- 
mandment; seeing that the reason for which the command itself was 
originally given, namely, as a memorial of God's having rested from 
12 



178 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

the creation of the world, cannot be transferred from the seventh day to 
the first ; nor can any new motive be substituted in its place, whether the 
resurrection of our Lord or any other, without the sanction of a divine 
commandment." — ''Prose Works" {Bohn), pp. 70, 71. 

Again JVIilton wrote^ in a manuscript which his pubhshers 
at the time feared to print: 

"If we under the gospel are to regulate the time of our pubhc worship 
by the prescriptions of the decalogue, it will surely be far safer to observ^e 
the seventh day, according to the express commandment of God, than on 
the authority of mere human conjecture to adopt the first." — Cox, "Sab- 
bath Literature," Vol. II, p. oJj.. 

While kings and poets and ecclesiastics discussed, here 
and there behevers began to follow the plain Word of God 
and Christ's example in Sabbath keeping. 

** Loved Not Their Lives unto the Death" 

In 1618 John Traske and his wife, of London, were con- 
demned for keeping the Sabbath of the Lord, the man being 
whipped from Westminster to the old Fleet Prison, near Lud- 
gate Circus. Both were imprisoned. ]\Ir. Traske recanted 
under the pressure, after a 3"ear, but Airs. Traske, a gifted 
school-teacher, was given grace to hold out for sixteen years, — 
for a time in Alaiden Lane prison, and then in the Gate House, 
by Westminster, — dying in prison for the word of the Lord. 
An estimable woman she was, says one old chronicler, save 
for this "whimsy'' of hers, that she would keep the seventh 
day. AU that she asked of men, on her prison deathbed, 
was that she might be buried '4n the fields." 

By 1661 Sabbath keepers in London had further increased. 
In that 3^ear John James was minister to a considerable con- 
gregation, meeting in East London, off the Whitechapel Road. 
As part of the stern proceedingr against dissenting sects 
after the restoration of the monarchy, he was arrested and 
condemned to death on "Tyburn Tree." His wife knelt at 
the feet of King Charles II as he came out of St. James's 
Palace one day, and pleaded for her husband's life; but the 
king scornfull}^ rejected her plea, and said that the man should 
hang. Bogue says: 



Sahhath Keeping after New Testament Times 179 

"For once the king remembered his promise, and Mr. James was 
sent to join the noble army of martyrs." — '^ History of Dissenters," Vol. 
I, p. 155. 

Nothing daunted, the number of Sabbath keepers in- 
creased. In a letter by Edward Stennet (between 1668 and 
1670), it is stated. 

"Here in England are about nine or ten churches that keep the 
Sabbath, besides many scattered disciples, who have been eminently 
preserved in this tottering day, when many once eminent churches have 
been shattered in pieces." — Cox, "Sabbath Literature," Vol. I, p. 268. 

Francis Bampfield was formerly an influential minister of 
the Church of England, and prebendary of Exeter Cathedral, 
but later pastor of a Sabbath-keeping congregation meeting 
in the Pinners Hall, off Broad Street, near the Bank of Eng- 
land. Calamy said of him: 

"He was one of the most celebrated preachers in the west of England, 
and extremely admired by his hearers, till he fell into the Sabbatarian 
notion, of which he was a zealous asserter." — "Non-Conformist Memorial," 
Vol. II, p. 162. 

He was arrested while in the pulpit preaching, and in 1683 
died of hardships in Newgate prison, for the Sabbath of the 
Lord. An old writer says that his body was followed to 
burial by ''a very great company of factious and schismatical 
people;" in other words, dissenters from the state church. 

Thomas Bampfield, his brother. Speaker of the House of 
ParHament at one time, under Cromwell, published a book 
in defense of the Sabbath of the Lord. In fact, many pub- 
lished the truth in this manner, and doctors of divinity and 
even bishops wrote replies. 

''Sabbatarian Baptists,'^ these English witnesses to God's 
Sabbath were first called in those times, and then ''Seventh 
Day Baptists." In 1664 Stephen Mumford, from one of these 
London congregations, was sent over to New England. He 
settled in Rhode Island, where the Baptist pioneer of religious 
liberty, Roger Williams, had founded his colony. In 1671 
the first Sabbatarian church in America was formed in Rhode 
Island. Evidently this movement created a stir; for the re- 



180 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

port went over to England that the Rhode Island colony did 
not keep the '^ Sabbath" — meaning Sunday. Roger WU- 
liams wrote to his friends in England denying the report, but 
calhng attention to the fact that there was no Scripture for 
''abolishing the seventh day/' and adding: 

"You know yourselves do not keep the Sabbath, that is the seventh 
day." — ^^ Letters of Roger Williams,'" Vol. VI, p. 34-6 (Narragansett Club 
Publications) . 

Through the following century numbers of Seventh Day 
Baptist churches were founded in America.* 

Sabbath keepers were springing up also on the continent 
of Europe, in Bohemia, Moravia, Transylvania, and Russia, 
where here and there Bible believers saw that tradition had 
made void one of the commandments of God. Then, as the 
events at the end of the long period of papal supremacy had 
moved Bible students to the earnest study of the prophecies, 
and as the predicted signs of the near approach of Christ's 
coming began to appear, there arose the great advent awaken- 
ing in the earlier decades of the nineteenth century. 

The prophecies regarding the work of the Papacy in seek- 
ing to change the law of God began to be understood, and it 
was seen that the last message of the everlasting gospel was 
a call to turn from human traditions to the New Testament 
standard — ''the commandments of God, and the faith of 
Jesus." Rev. 14: 12. Then began the great movement for 
Sabbath reform and the proclamation of Christ's second com- 
ing, which has given rise to the Seventh-day Adventist people, 



* In connection with this topic of Sabbath observance in colonial Amer- 
ica, it is of interest to note that Count Zinzendorf, the leader of the Moravian 
missionary movement, was a believer in the sanctity of the Sabbath of God's 
appointment. In his life, by Bishop Spangenberg, it is stated that the Sabbath 
question was discussed by Zinzendorf with the Moravians, on his visit to 
Pennsylvania in 1741. The record states : — 

" As a special circumstance it is to be remarked that he determined, with 
the church in Bethlehem, to celebrate the seventh day as a rest day. The mat- 
ter was previously fully gone over in the church council, with consideration 
of all the reasons for and against it. when the unanimous agreement was 
reached to observe the day Sabbatically. . . . The Count had already long 
held the seventh day of the week in special honor." — Zinzendorf ' s " Lehen/' 
hand 5, pp. 11,21, 1J,22. 

The Bethlehem congregation evidently did not follow the practice long. 
" But as for himself," says Spangenberg, " with his house, he adhered firmly 
to this aforementioned practice until his end." — Id.j p. H37. 



Sahbath Keeping after New Testament Times 181 

with a work spreading through all lands, leading thousands 
every year to keep the Lord's blessed Sabbath day. 

Soon Christ is to be revealed in righteousness and judg- 
ment. One burden of God's message for the last days is: 

''Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: 
for My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to 
be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the 
son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath 
from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.'' 
Isa. 56: 1, 2. 

Through all the dark centuries, the Lord had somewhere 
a little remnant keeping the light of the Sabbath truth glow- 
ing. They, too, overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the 
word of their testimony, loving not their lives unto the death. 
Now, with the clear light shining from the open Book, it is 
for Christians everywhere to turn from tradition to the way 
of God's commandments and the examole of Jesus Christ. 




'Closing Sabbath! Ah, how soon 
Have thy sacred moments passedl' 




Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or 
any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that 
is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the 
earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve 
them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting 
the iniquity of the fathers upon the chUdren unto the third 
and fourth generation of them that hate me; and show- 
ing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep 
my commandments. 

in 

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in 
vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh 
his name in vain. 

IV 

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days 
shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day 
is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not 
do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy 
manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy 
stranger that is within thy gates : for in six days the 
Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them 
is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed 
the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. 



Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may 
be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. 

VI 
Thou shalt not kill. 

vn 

Thou shalt not commit adultery. 

VIII 
Thou shalt not steal. 

IX 

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. 



Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt 
not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his 
maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is 
thy neighbor's. 




CHRIST'S SERMON ON THE 
MOUNT 



Whosoever shall do and teach them . . . 
shall be called -great in the kingdom of 
heaven." Matt. 5:19. 



THE LAW OF GOD 

It is a common saying, ''The majesty of the law." It 
means that the character and genius of a government are em- 
bodied and expressed in its laws. The words of Inspiration 
declare to us the majesty of the law of the Most High. 

The Character of God's Law 

The infinite perfection of the divine character is reflected 
in it. 

"The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." 
Ps. 19:7. 

As God is holiness and justice and goodness, so also is 
His law. 

''Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, 
and just, and good." Rom. 7: 12. 

Its Office 

The law of God gives knowledge of the righteousness 
of its great Author. 

183 



184 Our Day in the Ldght of Prophecy 

*' Hearken unto Me, ye that know righteousness, the 
people in whose heart is My law." Isa. 51: 7. 

It marks every departure from righteousness as sin. 

"Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: 
for sin is the transgression of the law." 1 John 3:4. 

It is not a code merely for the regulation of outward con- 
duct. It is the moral law — the primal standard of right- 
eousness established by the Creator for His creatures. There 
is not an impulse of the inmost soul that is not reached by it. 
It is the word which, Hving and powerful, is ''sharper than 
any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder 
of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a 
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Heb. 
4: 12. 

Face to face with this holy law, we hear in it the voice of 
God saying, ''Be ye holy; for I am holy." Every soul 
must confess its guilt before the searching power of God's 
law. All things are naked and open to the eyes of Him with 
whom we have to do. "Guilty!" we confess. Left alone 
with our guilt, there could be no ray of hope. 

"The threatenings of the broken law 
Impress the soul with dread; 
If God His sword of vengeance draw, 
It strikes the spirit dead." 

Thank God, we are not left alone; help is laid upon One 
mighty to save. 

"But Thine illustrious sacrifice 
Hath answered these demands, 
And peace and pardon from the skies 
Are offered by Thy hands." 

God's Law from the Beginning 

The law of God existed from the beginning. When Adam 
sinned, he transgressed this holy law; for "sin is the trans- 
gression of the law." God's law was not committed to writ- 
ing until the days of Moses, when the Lord began to make 



The Law of God 185 

His written revelations to the children of men. But from 
Adam to Moses the precepts of the law of God were teaching 
righteousness and convicting of sin. 

*' Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, 
and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that 
all have sinned: (for until the law [the giving of it at Sinai] 
sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no 
law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses.)" 
Rom. 5:12-14. 

The declaration of this scripture is: Without the law there 
can be no sin. But sin and death were from Adam to Moses, 
in whose day the law was spoken on Sinai; therefore the law 
of God was in force from the beginning. Its precepts were 
witnessed to by every preacher of righteousness raised up by 
God in the days before the deluge and in the patriarchal age 
following. Of Abraham the Lord says, 

^^ Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My 
commandments, My statutes, and My laws." Gen. 26:5. 

The Lord called His people out of Egypt, that they might 
keep his law. His message to Pharaoh was, ^'Let my people 
go, that they may serve Me." Ex. 9: 1. He delivered them 
from bondage by His mighty arm, and cleft the Red Sea to 
lead them forth to obedience, as the psalmist said, 

*'He brought forth His people with joy, and His chosen 
with gladness: . . . that they might observe His statutes, 
and keep His laws." Ps. 105:43-45. 

In Egyptian bondage the children of Abraham must have 
lost much of the purity of God's truth; yet the Lord held 
them under obligation to know His law — the Sabbath pre- 
cept particularly — before they came to Sinai, or ever He 
had proclaimed the law in their hearing. He tested them in 
the matter by the giving of the manna, as He said, 

"That I may prove them, whether they will walk in My 
law, or no." Ex. 16:4. 

From the beginning, God's holy law demanded the loyal 
obedience of every human being. 



186 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 
Proclaimed Anew at Sinai 



The Lord had dehvered the people of Israel from Egyptian 
bondage that they might serve Him and make His ways 
known to the nations. This was according to the prom- 




MOSES BREAKING THE TABLES 
OF THE LAW 



' He wrote them upon two tables of 
stone." Deut. 4:13. 



ise made to Abraham. To them was committed the written 
revelation of God, and through them was to come in the ful- 
ness of time the promised Messiah. 

While the Lord at this time ''made known His ways unto 
Moses,'^ and there was begun the written revelation which 



The Law of God 187 

grew into "the volume of the book/' the Holy Scriptures, 
one portion of revelation was not left for the prophet of God 
to speak or for the inspired pen to write. The Lord pro- 
claimed His holy law with His own voice, and gave to men a 
copy ''written with the finger of God." Moses said of this: 

''The Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: 
ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only 
ye heard a voice. And He declared unto you His covenant, 
which He commanded you to perform, even ten command- 
ments; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone." Deut. 
4:12, 13. 

This display of majesty and glory indescribable was de- 
signed to teach how sacred and holy is the law, and to cause 
men to fear to transgress its precepts. Ex. 20 : 20. 

It was not for themselves alone that the law was com- 
mitted to Israel. They were to teach the truth to others. 
As the New Testament says, it was greatly to their advan- 
tage that "unto them were committed the oracles of God." 
Rom. 3:2. But they "received the lively oracles to give 
unto us." Through obedience to the divine law, they were 
to be a light to the nations. 

"Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom 
and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which 
shall hear all these statutes, and say. Surely this great na- 
tion is a wise and understanding people. For what nation 
is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them?" Deut. 
4:6, 7. 

An interesting comment upon these words is supplied by 
a speech of Phalerius^ librarian to Ptolemy Philadelphus, king 
of Egypt. Urging the king by all means to secure copies of 
the sacred books of the Jews for his great library in Alexandria, 
Phalerius said: 

" Now it is necessary that thou shouldst have accurate copies of them. 
And indeed this legislation is full of hidden wisdom, and entirely blame- 
less, as being the legislation of God; for which cause it is. as Hecateus 
of Abdera says, that the poets and historians make no mention of it, nor 



188 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

of those men who lead their lives according to it, since it is a holy law, and 
ought not to be pubhshed by profane mouths." — Josephus, '^ Antiquities," 
book 12, chap. 2, sec. 4- 

Unfaithful as the Jewish people oftentimes were, yet 
through their testimony and the dealings of God with them, 
the fame of the living oracles was spread abroad among the 
ancient nations. 

One God — One Moral Standard 

"There is one Lawgiver/' James 4: 12. He is ever the 
same, and His law is the standard of righteousness for all 
mankind. There was not one moral standard before Christ 
and another after. Christ's death upon the cross because 
man had broken the law, is the divine testimony to all the 
universe that God's law can never be set aside nor its force 
suspended. Jesus opened His pubhc teaching with the dec- 
laration : 

''Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the 
prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily 
I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one 
tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least command- 
ments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in 
the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach 
them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." 
Matt. 5: 17-19. 

The moral law of ten conomandments is one code, every 
precept equally sacred and equally binding: 

''Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in 
one point, he is guilty of all. For He that said. Do not com- 
mit adultery, said also. Do not kill. Now if thou commit no 
adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of 
the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged 
by the law of liberty." James 2: 10-12. 

The law of God still speaks with all the force of that voice 
from Sinai, and it speaks to every soul on earth: 



The Law of God 189 

"Now we know that what things soever the law saith, 
it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth 
may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before 
God." Rom. 3:19. 

Thus the law of God convicts all men of sin, and would 
drive every one to Christ for pardon and for the divine gift of 
the grace and power of obedience. 

The ceremonial law — the precepts and ordinances com- 
manded for the sacrificial system — ceased with the sacrifice 
of Calvary, as all these ceremonial observances pointed for- 
ward to the cross. There can be no confounding of the moral 
law and the ceremonial law. The ceremonial law of types 
and shadows showed in itself that a primary or higher law — 
the moral law — had been violated, making necessary a divine 
sacrifice if transgressors were to be saved from death and re- 
stored to obedience. 

The Standard in the Judgment 

The law of God's moral government, which is the rule of 
life for every creature, must necessarily be the standard in 
the great judgment day. The Scripture states the sum of all 
human obligation and responsibility in the words: 

"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear 
God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty 
of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, 
with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be 
evil." Eccl. 12:13, 14. 

Every son and daughter of Adam's lost race is judgment 
bound, to answer before the bar of God the demands of the 
perfect law. Divine justice cannot abate one jot or tittle 
of the requirements of the holy law, nor by any means clear 
the guilty. But divine mercy has provided the way by which 
God can "be just, and the justifier of him which believeth 
in Jesus." 




THE GIFT OF GOD 



'God so loved the world, that He gave 
His only begotten Son.'" John 3 -IS. 




CHILDLIKE FAITH 



Except ye be converted, and become as 
little children, ye shall not enter into 
the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 18:3. 



JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH 



"How should man be just [righteous] with God?'' asked 
the patriarch Job. It has been the vital question ever since 
Adam sinned, and lost his righteousness and forfeited his 
life. The answer of Scripture is : — 

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with 
God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. 5:1. "By 
grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of your- 
selves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man 
should boast.'' Eph. 2:8, 9. 

In the beginning, life and righteousness were the gift of 
God to man. Only the Creator could bestow the gift at the 
first; when lost, only creative power can restore it. 

Man Cannot Justify Himself 

The law of God declares all men sinners. Not only did 
Adam's posterity inherit of necessity a sinful nature, but 
every soul of man has wrought sin as the fruit of that nature. 

191 



192 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

"As by one man sin entered into the world, and death 
by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have 
sinned." Rom. 5: 12. 

''There is no difference," Jew or Gentile, bond or free, 
they are in the same lost condition; ''for all have sinned, and 
come short of the glory of God." Rom. 10: 12; 3:23. 

The sinner finds himself a transgressor, condemned to 
death by a holy law. He turns to it with the thought, "I 
will do what it says, and become righteous and win life." 
But he cannot undo the fact that he has sinned. A holy law 
can only cry, "Guilty! guilty!" to one who has transgressed 
it. The law declares righteousness; it cannot give it. As 
the Scripture says: 

"We know that what things soever the law saith, it saith 
to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be 
stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justi- 
fied in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." 
Rom. 3:19, 20. 

The guilt exists. No deeds that man can do can undo it 
or cover it from a righteous law. Not only that, but as soon 
as the law declares what righteousness is, the sinner finds 
that its demands are altogether beyond the power of his flesh 
to meet. It calls for a kind of work that fallen human nature 
cannot so much as approach. Paul cried out, when strug- 
ghng under conviction, "We know that the law is spiritual: 
but I am carnal, sold under sin." Rom. 7: 14. 

The carnal cannot bring forth the spiritual. But the law 
demands a spiritual work of righteousness. It is impossible 
for the carnal mind to undertake it. The Scripture says: 

"The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not 
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then 
they that are in the flesh cannot please God." Rom. 8:7, 8. 

But the awakened sinner is yet in the flesh. He finds the 
law thundering his guilt and condemning him to death. He 
cannot wash away the past, nor hide it; he cannot obey God's 



Justification by Faith 193 

law with a carnal mind, and that is all the mind he has. He 
is lost, and helpless of himself, but longs for a way of escape. 
Paul's cry in the same position is the cry of the despairing 
heart that has not found the Saviour, ^'O wretched man that 
I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" 
Rom. 7: 24. Thank God, there is an answer to that cry, for 
every sinner. 

"Plunged in a gulf of dark despair, 
We wretched sinners lay, 
Without one cheering beam of hope. 
Or spark of glimmering day. 

"With pitying eyes the Prince of grace 
Beheld our helpless grief: 
He saw, and, O amazing love! 
He came to our rehef." 

The Free Gift of Christ 

Following that despairing cry of human helplessness, ''Who 
shall deliver me?" there came the believer's shout of praise, 
''I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." He is the 
deliverer; for He ''gave Himself for our sins, that He might 
dehver us." Rom. 7:25; Gal. 1:4. 

The way of escape and salvation is the gift of God's love. 
"God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life." John 3: 16. 

No sinner has need to plead that God may be willing to 
forgive him; the Lord's infinite love that gave His Son to die, 
is pleading with the sinner to believe and accept salvation. 

In order to be the sinner's Saviour, the divine Son of God 
must take man's place before the broken law. He came in 
human flesh, with all its weakness. "I can of Mine own 
self," He said, "do nothing." He trusted the Father, and 
lived a life of perfect righteousness in human flesh. He who 
knew no sin, bore man's sin in His body on the cross. "The 
Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." For man's 

13 



194 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

sin He died, ''that He by the grace of God should taste death 
for every man." In Him was met the penalty of the law. 
But it was a sinless sacrifice. He "through the eternal Spirit 
offered Himself without spot to God." Heb. 9: 14. There- 
fore death could not hold Him. He rose in the power of an 
endless hfe to be man^s advocate and priest and savior, 
ministering His grace and righteousness and life to every one 
who will receive them. 

The righteousness that He wrought out for man in hu- 
man flesh He longs to put into every human heart. As in 
His own flesh in Judea He walked and lived the life of right- 
eousness, so now, by the Holy Spirit, He walks in human hves 
today. That means forgiveness, and deliverance from the 
power of the flesh, and a new life of power, and righteous- 
ness and justification wrought within by the divine indwelling 
Saviour. How may we receive Him with all this great salva- 
tion? — By faith; by beHeving His promises; "that Christ 
may dwell in your hearts by faith." Eph. 3: 17. 

Christ in all His fulness abiding within, — this is the won- 
der and mystery of the gospel, "which is Christ in you, the 
hope of glory." It means an ever-present, ever-living Sav- 
iour, able to save to the uttermost. 

What abundance of grace is received with His indwell- 
ing presence! 

Forgiveness. — "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and 
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all imright- 
eousness." 1 John 1 : 9. 

Deliverance from the Flesh. — The cleansing by Christ's in- 
dwelhng power means that the old hfe of self is subdued. 
"Our old man is crucified with Him." Rom. 6:6. "Ye are 
not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God 
dwell in you. . . . And if Christ be in you, the body is dead 
because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness." 
Rom. 8:9, 10. 

A New Heart. — "A new heart also will I give you, and a 
new spirit wiU I put within you." Eze. 36:26. 



Justification by Faith 195 

A New Life. — ''Be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 
and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created 
in righteousness and true hohness." Eph. 4:23, 24. It is in 
blessed fact Christ Jesus Kving the Hfe in the beHever by 
faith, as the apostle Paul says: 

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not 
I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the 
flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and 
gave Himself for me." Gal. 2:20. 

Righteousness and Justification, — " This is His name 
whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUS- 
NESS." Jer. 23: 6. Well does the King James Version print 
the blessed name in capital letters. It is the great name of 
salvation to every believer. By faith we receive Him, and by 
faith His righteousness is imputed unto us. His life of obe- 
dience covers all the believer's surrendered life, past and con- 
tinuous, and in God's sight the life of the believer in Jesus is 
justified from all sin. It is the triumph of Him who was not 
only "delivered for our offenses," but was also "raised again 
for our justification:" 

"Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon 
aU men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one 
the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For 
as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by 
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." Rom. 
5:18, 19. 

Christ died and rose again to bring this experience to sin- 
ners who have struggled helplessly under condemnation. As 
Christ Jesus with all His righteousness is received by faith, 
"there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are 
in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the 
Spirit." Rom. 8:1. 

Praise the Lord! It is all of Christ, and not of any works 
that we have done. Therefore it is as sure as the oath and 
promise of God. We can lose the experience only as we let 



196 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



Christ go out of the Ufe by unbeHef. God forbid that we 
should do this; and help us to be quick to repent and again 
lay hold of Him by faith if ever we find we have let Him go 
and have lost the covering of His righteousness. 

"Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness 
My beauty are, my glorious dress; , 

'Mid hosts of sin, in these arrayed, 
My soul shaU never be afraid." 

Christ's righteousness is, of necessity, the righteousness 
demanded by the law of God. He fives that law in the be- 




THE LAST PRAYER 



That whosoever believeth in Him 
should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life." John 3:16. 



fiever. This is what justification is. *'Not the hearers of 
the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall 
be justified." Rom. 2: 13. Justification by faith makes the 
man a doer of the law by faith, Christ Hving every one of its 
sacred precepts in the believer's life. This is what He died 
to accomplish, to bring the righteousness of the law to the 
sinner who could never attain to it himseK. 



Justification by Faith 197 

*'What the law could not do, in that it was weak through 
the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful 
flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the right- 
eousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not 
after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Rom. 8:3, 4. 

Christ writes God's law in the new heart: '^I will put 
My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts." 
Heb. 8: 10. It is the rule of His own righteousness For 
before He came into the world to work out perfect righteous- 
ness for us in human flesh. He said, through the psalmist, 
"I delight to do Thy will, My God: yea. Thy law is within 
My heart." Ps. 40: 8. 

It is a perfect righteousness and a full salvation that Christ 
brings into every believer's heart. In Him all fulness dwells, 
"and ye are complete in Him." 

The wondrous plan of salvation is so deep that only ''in 
the ages to come" will God be able to ''show the exceeding 
riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ 
Jesus." Eph. 2:7. But thank God, even here below sinners 
saved by grace may "know the love of Christ, which passeth 
knowledge." 

"The wonders of redeeming love 
Our highest thoughts exceed; 
The Son of God comes from above, 
For sinful man to bleed. 

"He knows the frailties of our frame, 
For He has borne our grief; 
Our great High Priest once felt the same, 
And He can send relief. 

"His love will not be satisfied 
Till He in glory see 
The faithful ones for whom He died 
From sin forever free." 

— i2. F. Cottrell. 




THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST 



Thus it becometh us to fulfil all 
righteousness." Matt. 3:15. 



F^Jll, - 




aMifSr&jfiJSlKBL '' 


f:: .-:'^"^r.; '"Xr -■■'Jf'>;vi 


^^^^i^^m^^jjjimjg^^^ ^^1 




3EMH9 


^m^SKK^-f -^^^^^BillliB^^^BI 


i^^^^^-^p 


llx" .■■■.,-;.■ ^,^.,- . 


!B^PM^B^^'%Mw'''J"*'''!S!i8!M 




%> 



THE FORD OF JORDAN 



*John also was baptizing in yEnon near to 
Salim, because there was much water 
there." John 3:23. 



BAPTISM 



THE MEMORIAL OF THE RESURRECTION 

Baptism is the divinely appointed memorial of the resur- 
rection of Christ. The great fact of the gospel is that " Christ 
died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He 
was buried, and that He rose again the third day according 
to the Scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3, 4), to be our great High 
Priest and Saviour. 

Baptism is a profession of faith in the Saviour, who went 
into the grave for us, and rose again to life. It is the great 
object-lesson to teach the truth that the sinner must die to 
sin and the world, and have a resurrection by the power of 
divine grace to a new life of obedience. The ordinance is the 
sign of an actual experience, the means by which the believer 
confesses the work of grace in the soul. 

The Scriptures teach the essential conditions necessary 
to baptism: 

199 



200 Our Day in the Light oj Prophecy 

''Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every 
creature. He that beheveth and is baptized shall be saved." 
Mark 16: 15, 16. 

''WTiat doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said. 
If thou behevest with aU thine heart, thou mayest."' Acts 
8:36, 37. 

*'Then Peter said unto them. Repent, and be baptized 
evers' one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remis- 
sion of sms.'' Acts 2:38. 

Thus it is seen that instruction in the gospel, behef in 
Christ, and repentance are conditions to precede baptism. 

Baptism for Believers 

The experience of which baptism is the sign is thus 
stated: 

''We are buried with Him by baptism into death: that 
Uke as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glor^^ of 
the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of hfe." 
Rom. 6:4. 

'"As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have 
put on Christ.'"' Gal. 3: 27. 

''Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen 
with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who 
hath raised Him from the dead.'*' Col. 2: 12. 

In this ordinance, commanded of God, the beUever is fol- 
lowing the example of Christ, who, when baptized by John in 
Jordan, said. ''Thus it becomethusto fulfil aU righteousness." 

"Thus through the emblematic grave 
The glorious suffering Saviour trod; 
Thou art our Pattern, through the wave 
We follow Thee, blest Son of God." 

The Form of Baptism 

The Scriptural form of baptism is shown in these texts : 
"Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out 
of the water." Matt. 3:16. 



Baptism 201 

''They went down both into the water, both PhiUp and 
the eunuch; and he baptized him." Acts 8:38. 

"Buried with Him by baptism. . . . For if we have been 
planted together in the Hkeness of His death, we shall be also 
in the likeness of His resurrection." Rom. 6:4, 5. 

While the outward form of a rehgious service, without 
the spirit and the experience which the form professes, must 
ever be unacceptable to God, yet when the Lord prescribes 
a form, it is imperative that His instruction should be fol- 
lowed. The form of the ordinance as commanded by God 
emphasizes the divine meaning of the service. 

Scriptural baptism is a burial ''in the likeness" of Christ's 
burial, as the lifting up of the believer from the watery grave 
is a hkeness of the resurrection of Christ. Of the meaning 
of the word "baptism," Luther wrote: 

"Baptism is a Greek word; in Latin it can be translated immersion, 
as when we plunge something into water that it may be completely covered 
with water." — Opera Lutheri, De Sac. Bap. 1, p. 319 {Baptist Encyclo- 
pedia, art. '^Baptism''). 

■ Calvin, after arguing that the form is an indifferent mat- 
ter, says: 

"The very word 'baptize,' however, signifies to immerse; and it is 
certain that immersion was observed by the ancient church." — '^In- 
stitutes" tih. 4i cap. 15 {Baptist Encyclopedia, art. ''Baptism'^). 

Of the practice in primitive times, Neander, the church 
historian, says: 

"In respect to the manner of baptizing, in conformity with the orig- 
inal institution and the original import of the symbol, it was generally 
administered by immersion." — ''History of the Christian Church," Tor- 
rey's translation {London edition), Vol. I, p. ^29. 

The perversion of the ordinance into sprinkling, and that 
in infancy, takes away the divinely ordained object-lesson; 
and in the case of the infant must of necessity substitute 
mere ceremonialism for experience, for the child of unac- 
countable years can have had no experience of believing and 
repenting, which are the necessary conditions to fulfil the 
meaning of baptism. The change in the ordinance, Hke 



202 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

most of the changes that came about in the days of the "fall- 
ing away'' from the primitive faith and practice, was by 
gradual process. 

Dean Stanley, in his ''Christian Institutions," page 24, 
says that it is not till the third century that ''we find one 
case of the baptism of infants." Of the change from inamer- 
sion to sprinkling, he says: 

''What is the justification of this almost universal departure from the 
primitive usage? There may have been many reasons, some bad, some 
good. One, no doubt, was the superstitious feeling already mentioned 
which regarded baptism as a charm, indispensable to salvation, and which 
insisted on imparting it to every human being who could be touched with 
water, however unconscious." 

The common practice as late as the twelfth century is thus 

described by a Roman Catholic cardinal of that time, named 

PuUus: 

"Whilst the candidate for baptism in water is immersed, the death 
of Christ is suggested; whilst immersed and covered with water, the burial 
of Christ is shown forth; whilst he is raised from the waters, the resur- 
rection of Christ is proclaimed." — Patrol. Lat., Vol. CXXX, p. 315 {Bap* 
list Encyclopedia, art. ^'Baptism"). 

Dean Stanley, of Westminster, one of the first scholars 
of the Church of England, wrote: 

"For the first thirteen centuries the almost universal practice of bap- 
tism was that of which we read in the New Testament, and which is the 
very meaning of the word 'baptize/ — that those who were baptized 
were plunged, submerged, immersed into the water. That practice is 
still, as we have seen, continued in Eastern churches. In the Western 
church it still lingers among Roman Catholics in the solitary instance 
of the Cathedral of Milan; among Protestants in the numerous sects of 
the Baptists. It lasted long into the Middle Ages. . . . But since the 
beginning of the seventeenth century, the practice has become exceedingly 
rare. With the few exceptions just mentioned, the whole of the Western 
churches have now substituted for the ancient bath the ceremony of let- 
ting fall a few drops of water on the face. The reason of the change is 
obvious. The practice of immersion, though pecuharly suitable to the 
Southern and Eastern countries for which it was designed, was not found 
seasonable in the countries of the North and West. Not by any decree 
of coimcil or parHament, but by the general sentiment of Christian hberty, 



Baptism 203 

this remarkable change was effected. Beginning in the thirteenth cen- 
tury, it has gradually driven the ancient catholic usage out of the whole 
of Europe." — "Christian Institutions, '* pp. 21, 22. 

The facts are undeniable, and emphasize the importance 
of reformation and return in practice to the plain instructions 
of the Word of God. As the record shows, it was not the 
spirit of the New Testament church that made this change 
in the divine ordinance; rather it is the spirit of the church 
of the '^ falling away," against which the Lord warns all be- 
lievers, "because they have transgressed the laws, changed the 
ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. '^ 



The Path He Trod 

Our Saviour bowed beneath the wave, 
And meekly sought a watery grave; 
Come, see the sacred path He trod — 
A path well pleasing to our God. 

His voice we hear, His footsteps trace, 
And hither come to seek His face, 
To do His will, to feel His love. 
And join our songs with those above. 

— Adoniram .Hudson. 



11 





111 mm iiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitfiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiimii^^ 



COINS OF THE MEDO-PERSIAN 
AND GRECIAN EMPIRES 



The ram, symbol of Persia: and the 
goat, symbol of Grecia. 



THE PROPHECY OF DANIEL 8 

A HISTORIC OUTLINE AND A VITAL QUESTION 

Another view of the history of empires and kingdoms 
was brought before the prophet Daniel in the vision of the 
eighth chapter. In this vision a great prophetic period is 
given, the end of which reaches to the latter days, touching 
events of our own times that are of direct interest and impor- 
tance to every one today. 

The vision was given in the third year of Belshazzar, the 
last king of Babylon. Again, as in moving panorama, there 
passed before the prophet's vision the scenes of history. 
Earthly kingdoms were represented under the symbols of 
beasts. 

We shall find the prophecy and the history corresponding 
in every detail, revealing the overruling hand of God, who 
knows the end from the beginning, and whose living Word of 
truth bears its witness through all the ages. 

"Truth never dies. The ages come and go; 
The mountains wear away; the seas retire; 
Destruction lays earth's mighty cities low, 

And empires, states, and dynasties expire; 
But caught and handed onward by the wise, 
Truth never dies." 

The opening scene of this vision, given by the river Ulai, 
in Persia, is thus described: 

205 



206 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

Prophecy. — "Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, 
behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two 
horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than 
the other, and the higher came up last. I saw the ram push- 
ing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no 
beast might stand before him, neither was there any that 
could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his 
will, and became great." Verses 3, 4. 

In the angel's interpretation of the vision Daniel was told: 
"The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings 
of Media and Persia." Verse 20. "The higher came up 
last." 

The two horns represented the dual character of the em- 
pire: first the Medes in ascendancy, then the Persians rising 
to yet greater power. "So that no beast might stand before 
him," says the prophecy. 

History. — Xenophon says of Cyrus the Persian: 

"He was able to extend the fear of himseK over so great a part of the 
world that he astonished aU, and no one attempted anything against him." 
— ''The CyropcBdia," book 1, chap. 1. 

The line of Medo-Persian conquest was "westward, and 
northward, and southward," just as the prophet saw the ram 
pushing its way. As one pen wrote in the days of Persia's 
supremacy : 

"He [Darius] showed the world arms glory-crowned." 

"Towns untold before him fell." 

"Burgs over sea . . . heard from his lips their fate." 

— ^'The Persians" by ^schylus. 

But the ram pushing westward stirred up an antagonist 
that was eventually to overcome him. The prophet con- 
tinues: 

Prophecy. — " As I was considering, behold, a he goat came 
from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not 
the ground : and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. 
And he came to the ram that had two horns, . . . and ran 



The Prophecy of Daniel 8 207 

unto him in the fury of his power. . . . And there was no 
power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down 
to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none 
that could deUver the ram out of his hand." Verses 5-7. 

The angel's interpretation continued: ''The rough goat is 
the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his 
eyes is the first king." Verse 21. 

History. — This "first king" of united Grecia was Alex- 
ander the Great. 

"With Alexander the New Greece begins." — Harrison, "Story of 
Greece/' p. 499. 

"And it happened, after that Alexander . . . had smitten Darius 
king of the Persians and Medes, that he reigned in his stead, the first 
over Greece." 1 Maccabees 1:1. 

Under Alexander, the Grecian goat ran upon the Persian 
ram *'in the fury of his power." At Arbela, wrote Arrian, the 
Macedonians charged ''with great fury." None was able to 
deliver the Persian ram. "Wherever you fly," wrote Alex- 
ander to the retreating Darius, "thither I will siuely pursue 
you." (See "Anabasis of Alexander the Great," by Arrian, 
book 2, chap. 14.) Medo-Persia fell before Grecia, as this 
sure word of prophecy had foretold two hundred years before 
Alexander's day. 

Grecians expansion and its later history were next unfolded 
before the prophet's vision: 

Prophecy. — "Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and 
when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it 
came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven." 
Verse 8. 

Of the ram (Persia) it was said it became "great;" of the 
goat (Grecia), that it became "very great." 

History. — Justin, the Roman, wrote of Alexander: 

"So much was the whole world awed by the terror of his name, that 
all nations came to pay their obedience to him." — "History of the World," 
book 12, chap. 13. 



208 Our Day in the Ldght of Prophecy 

"Vain in his hopes, the youth had grasped at all, 

And his vast thought took in the vanquished ball." 
— Lucan's "Pharsalia" {Nicholas Rowe's translation), hook 3. 

But the unerring prophecy had said that ''when he was 
strong, the great horn was broken." Suddenly the youthful 
conqueror was cut down by death, just as he was preparing to 
celebrate at Babylon a ''convention of the whole universe," 

''being thus taken off in the flower of his age, and in the height of his 
•victories." — Justin, "History of the World," hook 13, chap. 1. 

The ancient pagan writers, in teUing the story, make use 
of language very similar to that used by divine prophecy in 
foretelhng it. Following Alexander's death the empire was 
divided "toward the four winds of heaven." Myers says: 

"Four well-defined and important monarchies arose out of the 
ruins. . . . The great horn was broken; and instead of it came up four 
notable ones toward the four winds of heaven." — "History of Greece " 
{edition 1902), p. 4^7. 

As the prophet watched these four kingdoms of divided 
Greece, he beheld another power coming into the field of his 
vision through one of the four kingdoms, and extending its 
authority more than any before it: 

Prophecy. — "Out of one of them [one of the four king- 
doms] came forth a httle horn, which waxed exceeding great, 
toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleas- 
ant land." Verse 9. 

History. — Medo-Persia was "great," Grecia was "very 
great," but this power was to be "exceeding great." Rome 
followed Grecia. Polybius, the Roman, says: 

''Almost the whole inhabited world was conquered, and brought under 
the dominion of the single city of Rome." — "Histories of Polyhius" {Eve- 
lyn Shuckhurgh's translation), hook 1, chap. 1. 

One of the odes of Horace tells how the name of Rome 
grew to might: 

. "Till her superb dominion spread 

East, where the sun comes forth in light. 
And west to where he lays his head." 

— Ode 15, "To Augustus,^' hook 4. 



The Prophecy of Daniel 8 209 

Lucan's lines measured its exceeding greatness from the 

other points of the compass: 

''Though from the frozen pole our empire run, 
Far as the journeys of the southern sun." 

—"Pharsalia," hook 10. 

''The empire of the Romans filled the world/' says Gib- 
bon. It was "exceeding great," according to the prophecy. 
In the vision the little horn that grew so great came into the 
prophet's view as proceeding out of one of the four horns that 
he had been watching. Rome rose to unquestioned suprem- 
acy out of its conquest of Macedonia, one of the four notable 
kingdoms into which Grecia was divided. It spread forth 
toward the south, and toward the east, and 'Howard the 
pleasant land," Palestine becoming a province of the empire 
in the century before Christ. And it was a Roman force that 
destroyed Jerusalem and devastated the pleasant land. 

Thus the ''sure word of prophecy," with exactness in 
detail, carries the history thiough the centuries to the last 
great universal monarchy, Rome. 

But this prophecy does not deal so much with the earlier 
history of Rome as with the developments of later times. It 
was the same in the prophetic outline of Daniel 7. After 
briefly identifying Rome as the last universal monarchy, the 
vision of the seventh chapter dealt with the rise of papal Rome, 
described its exaltation of itself against God, and its warfare 
against the truth and the saints of God. And here again, 
in the eighth chapter, the same persecuting power is seen de- 
veloping, exalting itself, and persecuting the saints of God. 
The prophecy says that "it cast down the truth to the ground; 
and it practiced, and prospered." Dan. 8:12. The papal his- 
tory, as given in the study on Daniel 7, need not be repeated 
herci 

As the prophet watched the work of this lawless power, 
his heart must have cried out to know how long it was to be 
allowed to prosper in its evil way; for next he heard the voice 
of a holy one asking the question for him, 

14 



The Prophecy of Daniel 8 211 

"How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacri- 
fice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the 
sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot?" Dan. 8:13. 

The answer was, 

''Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall 
the sanctuary be cleansed." Verse 14. 

In symbolic prophecy a day stands for a year. Eze. 4: 6. 
This is a long period, therefore, of 2300 years. It reaches to 
the latter days; for the angel said of it, ''At the time of the 
end shall be the vision." Dan. 8: 17. 

The question was, "How long?" or literally, "Until when?" 
and the answer was, "Until two thousand and three himdred 
days." Then what was to come to deal with the great apos- 
tasy? — "Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." The cleans- 
ing of the sanctuary, therefore, must have something to do 
with meeting the great apostasy, lifting up God's truth that 
has been trampled underfoot, and cutting short the reign of 
evil. The cleansing of the sanctuary, with all that is in- 
volved in it, must be God's answer to this lawless power. 

Error may prosper for a time; but the just balances of 
the sanctuary will at last pronounce righteous judgment, and 
the prosperity of evil will be cut short. "I was envious . . . 
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked," said the psalmist, 
"until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood 
I their end." Ps. 73:3, 17. 

What, then, is involved in the cleansing of the sanctuary, 
the time of which is marked by the long prophetic period? 
It is for us to understand; for it is a work pertaining to the 
latter days. 




OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST 



We have such a high priest, who is set on 
the right hand of the throne of the Majesty 
in the heavens." Heb. 8:1. 




THE INTERIOR OF THE 
SANCTUARY 



A figure for the time then present, in 
which were offered both gifts and sac- 
rifices." Heb. 9:9. 



THE CLEANSING OF THE SANCTUARY IN 
TYPE AND ANTITYPE 

The Bible teaching concerning the sanctuary of the Le- 
vitical service shows clearly that the cleansing of the sanctuary 
is God's answer to error and apostasy. 

The priestly service of the earthly sanctuary, or temple, 
in the days of Israel, was typical of the work of Christ, our 
High Priest, in the heavenly temple. The earthly priests 
served after "the example and shadow of heavenly things.'' 
Heb. 8:5. And of Christ's ministry in the heavenly temple 
we are told: 

*'Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: 
We have such a high priest, who is set on the right hand of 
the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the 
sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, 
and not man." Heb. 8: 1, 2. 

In the earthly service, the cleansing of the sanctuary was 
the closing work of the high priest, marking the end of the 

213 



214 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

yearly round of mediatory ministry. The cleansing of the 
sanctuary in the time of the end must, therefore, according 
to the sure teaching of the type, be the closing ministry of 
our great High Priest in the heavenly temple, before He lays 
aside His priestly work to come in glory. 

The Service of the Earthly Tabernacle 

There were two distinct phases in the priestly ministry 
of the tabernacle in Israel. The sanctuary was built with 
two apartments, the holy place and the most holy. 

In the holy place were the candlestick with its seven hghts, 
the table with its ever-renewed ^' bread of the presence, '' and 
the altar of incense, on which sweet incense, symbol of Christ's 
continual intercession, was burned morning and night. 

Within the inner veil was the most holy place, where was 
the ark containing the tables of the law, written with the 
finger of God. The cover of the ark was the golden mercy- 
seat, above which, at either end, stood two cherubim of gold, 
their wings meeting on high, their faces looking ever toward 
the mercy-seat. It was a type of the throne of God — the 
angels about the throne, the law the foundation of His govern- 
ment, the mercy-seat typifying the interposition of mercy 
and pardon for the sinner; and above it the visible glory of 
the Lord, the Shekinah. 

''There I wiU meet with thee, and I wiU commune with 
thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cheru- 
bim which are upon the ark of the testimony." Ex. 25:22. 

Of the service in the first apartment it is stated: 

''When these things were thus ordained, the priests went 
always into the first tabernacle, accomphshing the service of 
God." Heb. 9:6. 

"Day by day the sacrificial victims were- slain at the altar 
before the outer veil, and the blood was 'brought into the 
sanctuary' by the priest." This was an acknowledgment 
of transgression of God's law, meriting death, and a confes- 
sion of faith in the Lamb of God who was to suffer death in 



The Cleansing of the Sanctuary 215 

the sinner's stead, and whose atoning blood would plead for 
him before the righteous law. 

Thus day by day, either by the sprinkling of the blood 
^'before the Lord" or by eating a portion of the flesh of the 
burnt offering in the holy place, the ministry of the priests 
transferred the sin in type to the sanctuary, and the sinner 
was pardoned. 

For a full year, lacking one day, the ministry was in the 
first apartment, or holy place only. But on that last day 
of the yearly round of service — 'Hhe tenth day of the seventh 
month" — the high priest entered the second apartment, or 
most holy place. 

''Into the second went the high priest alone once every 
year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for 
the errors of the people." Heb. 9:7. 

In this service the high priest sprinkled the blood upon 
the mercy-seat and in the holy place, ''because of the un- 
cleanness of the children of Israel." The sanctuary was to 
be reconciled or cleansed from all the sins registered there 
in type through the blood of the offerings brought day by 
day during the year. 

As the high priest came out, bearing the sins, he trans- 
ferred them all to the head of the scapegoat, which was sent 
away into the wilderness; and thus "all their iniquities" 
were borne away from the camp into the wilderness, and the 
sanctuary was cleansed. See Leviticus 16. 

This was a solemn time of judgment in Israel. Every 
man's life came in review that day. Was every sin confessed? 
Whosoever was not found right with God, when that serv- 
ice was performed, was cut off from having a part with God's 
people. 

"It is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you 
before the Lord your God. For whatsoever soul it be that 
shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off 
from among his people." Lev. 23:28, 29. 



216 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



It was indeed an annual day of judgment in Israel. And 
all this was an "example and shadow of heavenly things.'* 
Heb. 8:5. 

Christ's Closing Work in Heaven 

Therefore the last phase of Christ's ministry as our high 
priest in the sanctuary of God above, must be a work of judg- 
ment, a review of the heavenly record, corresponding to the 




THE MEMORIAL OF HIS 
SACRIFICE 



As often as ye eat this bread, and drink 
this cup, ye do show the Lord's death 
till He come." 1 Cor. 11:26. 



final ministry in the second apartment of the earthly taber- 
nacle, when that sanctuary was cleansed. 

Daniel the prophet was shown in vision this change in 
the ministry of our High Priest, namely, from the first to 
the second apartment of the heavenly temple. He describes 
the wondrous scene, as God's living throne, with its wheels 
flaming with glory, moved into the most holy place of the 
heavenly sanctuary, for the closing work of Christ's ministry: 



The Cleansing of the Sanctuary 217 

"I beheld till the thrones were cast down [''placed/' 
R. v.], and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was 
white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool: 
His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning 
fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: 
thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand 
times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, 
and the books were opened." Dan. 7:9, 10. 

This scene, as the next verse shows, opens while still on 
earth the apostasy is exalting itself. But during this same 
time a solemn judgment work is going forward in heaven 
above, the finishing of which will give God's answer to the 
apostasy, and bring the second coming of Christ in glory to 
end the reign of sin. It is the cleansing of the sanctuary, — 
the time when in reality and not in type every case registered 
in the sanctuary comes in final review before God. When 
that work closes, according to the type, whosoever is not 
found right with God will be cut off from having any part 
with His redeemed people. 

Then the priestly ministry of Christ will close, and the 
destiny of every soul will be fixed for all eternity. To that 
time must apply the words spoken by Jesus: 

"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: . . . and he 
that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is 
holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly." 
Rev. 22: 11, 12. 

But now the Saviour, from His place of ministry on high, 
speaks to all the encouraging exhortation and assurance: 

"He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white 
raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of 
life, but I will confess his name before My Father, and before 
His angels." Rev. 3:5. 

To let men on earth know when this judgment work, the 
cleansing of the sanctuary, began in heaven, the prophetic 
period of 2300 years was given. It is of most solemn impor- 
tance that we know when that period begins and ends. 




ARTAXERXES SENDING 
THE JEWS TO REBUILD 
JERUSALEM, B. C. 457 



' From the going forth of the commandment to re- 
store and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the 
Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and 
two weeks." Dan. 9 : 25. 




NEHEMIAH, THE KING'S 
CUPBEARER 



" Send me unto Judah, unto the city of 
my fathers' sepulchers, that I may 
build it." Neh. 2:5. 



A GREAT PROPHETIC PERIOD 



THE 2300 YEARS OF DANIEL 8:14 

The commission to the angel Gabriel was, ''Make this 
man to miderstand the vision" (Dan. 8: 16); therefore in the 
angel's explanation of the vision of Daniel 8, we must as- 
suredly find the interpretation of the prophetic period of 2300 
years, the close of which marks the opening of the judgment 
work in heaven, or the cleansing of the sanctuary. 

The eighth chapter closes, however, with no reference to 
the beginning of this period of time, a most important measur- 
ing Hne of prophecy. The angel had explained the sj^mbols 
representing Medo-Persia, Grecia, and Rome, and had dwelt 
upon the antichristian work of the apostasy that was to de- 
velop; but he left the time of the prophetic period unex- 
plained, save to say that it was ''true," and that it would 
be "for many days" — far in the future. Here the angel 
stopped, for Daniel fainted. In spirit the prophet had been 
gazing upon the warfare of the great apostasy against God's 

219 



A Great Prophetic Period 221 

truth through the ages, and evidently it took all strength 
from him. Daniel closes the account of this vision with the 
words, "I was astonished at the vision, but none understood 
it." Verse 27. 

But the angel had been commanded, ''Make this man to 
understand the vision;" and soon after, as recorded in the 
next chapter, — possibly within a year,* — Gabriel appeared 
to the prophet with the words: 

''0 Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and 
understanding. . . . Therefore understand the matter, and 
consider the vision." Dan. 9:22, 23. 

Thereupon the angel began to deal with the matter of 
time in the prophecy, the very feature of the vision of the 
eighth chapter that he had not yet made Daniel understand. 
Therefore the vision of the 2300 years must be the topic. 

The Starting-Point 

First of all, the angel said that a short period was to be 
cut off from the long period, and allotted to the Jewish people; 
this short period was to reach to the coming of the promised 
Messiah and the filling up of the measure of Jerusalem's 
transgressions. The angel's own words are: 

"Seventy weeks [490 days, prophetic time, or 490 literal 
years] are determined [cut off, as the word means] upon thy 
people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, 
and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for 
iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal 



* The dates placed in the margin of the King James Version indicate a 
period of fifteen years between the eighth and ninth chapters of Daniel. This 
was because in former days it was thought that Belshazzar was the Bible 
name of Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon, who reigned seventeen years. 
In that case, from " the third year " of his reign, when the prophecy of Daniel 
8 was given, to the " first year of Darius," who succeeded him, when the 
angel appeared again to Daniel, would be fifteen years. But the unearthing 
of the buried records of Babylonia during the last half century, reveals the 
fact that Belshazzar was the son of Nabonidus, associated with him on the 
throne as king for a few years before the fall of Babylon. The third year of 
his reign may very likely have been the last year ; and Darius immediately 
followed Belshazzar. The explanation of the ninth chapter might have been 
within a few weeks or months following the vision of chapter 8, and probably 
was. 



222 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy." 
Verse 24. 

This 490-year period "cut off" was to cover the history 
of the people of Jerusalem until that city had filled out the 
measure of its transgression. The only prophetic period 
from which this 490 years can properly be said to be "cut 
off" is, assuredly, the longer period of 2300 years, which 
stretches far onward to "the time of the end." The 490 
years and the 2300 years, then, must begin at the same time. 

It was the time period that the angel Gabriel was yet to 
explain; and he begins the explanation by showing that the 
first 490 years of it would reach to the days of the Messiah. 
Then he gives the event that marks the beginning of the 490 
years, which event must necessarily mark the beginning of 
the 2300 years as well. 

This is what he was commissioned to make Daniel "under- 
stand" when first the vision of the 2300 years was given. 
Now he tells him to "understand" it: 

"Know therefore and understand, that from the going 
forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem 
unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and three- 
score and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the 
wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two 
weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself: and the 
people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city 
and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, 
and unto the end of the war desolations are determined." 
Dan. 9:25, 26. 

The date of the going forth of the commandment to re- 
store and rebuild Jerusalem is the date, therefore, from which 
the great prophetic measuring line runs; the first 490 years of 
it to reach to the time and work of the Messiah, at the first 
advent, the full 2300 years running on to mark the time when 
the judgment hour in heaven opens. Once the starting- 
point is fixed, all the events of the long period must follow 
exactly as scheduled in the time-table of divine .prophecy. 



A Great Prophetic Period 223 

Date of the Commencement to Restore Jerusalem 

There were several commands issued concerning the res- 
toration of Jerusalem after the Babylonish captivity. Cyrus, 
and Darius, and Artaxerxes Longimanus each issued such a 
decree. Which one answers to the language of the prophecy 
as "the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem"? 




THE JEWS MOURNING OVER 
THE RUINS OF JERUSALEM 



I went out by night, . . . and viewed 
the walls of Jerusalem, which were 
broken down." Neh. 2:13. 



The decree of Artaxerxes was most comprehensive (Ezra 
7), authorizing the full restoration of the civil and rehgious 
administration of Jerusalem and Judea. And Inspiration 
specifically sums up all the decrees as completed only in that 
of Artaxerxes, which thus constituted "the commandment:" 

"They builded, and finished it, according to the com- 
mandment of the God of Israel, and according to the com- 
mandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of 
Persia." Ezra 6: 14. 




REBUILDING JERUSALEM 



They builded, and finished it, according 
to the commandment of the God of Is- 
raeJ, and according to the commandment of 
Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king 
of Persia." Ezra 6:14. 



A Greed Prophetic Period 225 

According to this scripture, the full "going forth of the 
commandment to restore and to build/' dates from this de- 
cree of Artaxerxes. And this decree went forth '*in the sev- 
enth year of Artaxerxes the king." Ezra 7:7. 

What year was this seventh year of Artaxerxes — a date 
so important to fix to a certainty? 

The great chronological standard for the kings of the 
ancient empires is the canon, or historical rule, of Ptolemy. 
Ptolemy was a Greek historian, geographer, and astronomer, 
who lived in the temple of Serapis, near Alexandiia, Egypt. 
From ancient records he prepared a chronological table of 
the kings of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome (carrying 
the Roman list to his own time, which was the second century 
after Christ). Along with his Hst of kings and the years of 
their succession, Ptolemy compiled a record of ancient ob- 
servations of ecHpses. In such and such a year of a king, 
for instance, on a given day of the month, an eclipse of the 
sun or moon would be recorded. Astronomers have worked 
out these observations, and verified them. The learned Dr. 
WilHam Hales said: 

"To the authenticity of these copies of Ptolemy's canon, the strong- 
est testimony is given by their exact agreement throughout, with above 
twenty dates and computations of eclipses in Ptolemy's Almagest." — 
"Chronology,'' Vol. I, p. 166. 

Thus, says James B. Lindsay, an English chronologist, 
"a foundation is laid for chronology sure as the stars.'* So 
the sun and the stars, the divinely appointed timekeepers, 
bear their witness to the accuracy of the historical record. 

We thank God for this, as we desire to know if we may 
depend upon Ptolemy's canon to help us fix to a certainty 
the seventh year of Artaxerxes. 

According to Ptolemy, Artaxerxes succeeded to the throne 
in the two hundred and eighty-fourth year of the canon. In 
modern reckoning, this two hundred and eighty-fourth year 
runs from Dec. 17, 465 b. c, to Dec. 17, 464 b. c. The canon 
does not tell at what part of the year a king succeeded to the 

15 



226 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

throne; it only deals with whole years. The question is, to 
be exact, Did Artaxerxes come to the throne in December, 
465 B. c, or at some time in the year 464 b. c? At what 
season of the year did the king take the throne? Some his- 
torians, dealing with the matter roughly, date the succession 
from the year 465. But in deahng with divine prophecy, we 
require certainty upon which to base the reckoning of the sev- 
enth year of Artaxerxes, from which date the prophetic period 
runs. 

And in God's providence we do have certainty. Of all 
the kings of Assyria, Babylon, and Medo-Persia, in Ptolemy's 
long list, there is but one concerning whose succession the 
Scriptures give us the very time of the year — and that one 
is Artaxerxes. The one case in which we need to know to a 
certainty the season of the year, in order to fix an important 
date in prophecy, is the one case in which Inspiration gives 
exactly the particulars. Who cannot see the hand of God in 
this? 

The combined record of Neh. 1:1; 2: 1 and Ezra 7: 7-9,* 
shows that Artaxerxes came to the throne between the fifth 
month of the Jewish year and the ninth month, — roughly, 
between August and December, — or in the autumn. The 
Bible gives one part of the record, and Ptolemy's canon gives 



* These texts show that the king came to the throne in the autumn, so 
that the actual years of his reign would run from autumn to autumn. Neh. 

1 : 1 begins the record : " In the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year." Neh. 

2 : 1 continues : " It came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year 
of Artaxerxes." Thus it is plain that in the monthly calendar of the king's 
actual reign the month Chisleu came first in order, and then Nisan. Chisleu 
was the ninth month of the Jewish sacred year, roughly, December. Nisan 
is the first month, April. And these months, December, April, — in that order, 
— came in the first year of the king, of course, the same as in his twentieth 
year. And in the same year also came the fifth month, August ; for Ezra 
7 : 7-9 shows that the first and fifth months — in that order — also fell in the 
same year of his reign. Then we know of a certainty that his reign began 
somewhere between August and December, that is, in the autumn. The first 
year of Artaxerxes was from the latter part of 464 b. c. to the latter part of 
463, and the seventh year, as readily counted off, would be from near the end 
of 458 to near the end of 457. Under the commission to Ezra, the people 
began to go up to Jerusalem in the spring of that year. 457 B. c. (in the first 
month, or April), and they " came to Jerusalem in the fifth month " (August). 
Ezra 7:8, 9. Ezra and his associates soon thereafter " delivered the king's 
commissions unto the king's lieutenants, and to the governors on this side the 
river : and they furthered the people, and the house of God." Ezra 8 : 36. 
With this delivery of the commissions to the king's officers, the commandment 
to restore and to build had, most certainly, fully gone forth. And from this 
date, 457 b. c, extends the great prophetic period. 



A Great Prophetic Period 227 

another part; and by the combined record we know that 
Artaxerxes came to the throne late in the year 464 b. c, and 
thus the seventh year of his reign would be 457 b. c. This is 
the date fixed by other sources of reliable chronology also, Sir 
Isaac Newton having worked out several lines of evidence 
from ancient authorities, in each case reaching the year 464 
B. c. as the first of Artaxerxes, which makes the seventh to 
be 457 B. c. 

In the seventh year of Artaxerxes the commandment went 
forth to restore and to build Jerusalem, and this event fixes 
the beginning of the 2300 years, as also of the 490 years cut 
off from it upon the Jewish people. 

That year, 457 b. c, therefore, is a date of profound im- 
portance. It stands like the golden milestone in the ancient 
Forum at Rome, from which ran out all the measurements 
of distance to the ends of the empire. From this date, 457 
b. c, run out the golden threads of time prophecy that touch 
events in the earthly life and the heavenly ministry of Jesus 
that are of deepest eternal interest to all mankind today. 

The Ransom Paid 

Lord, I believe Thy precious blood, 
Which, at the mercy-seat of God, 
Forever doth for sinners plead, 
Can cleanse my guilty soul indeed. 

Lord, I believe were sinners more 
Than sands upon the ocean shore, 
Thou hast for all a ransom paid. 
For all a full provision made. 

— Nikolaus Zinzendorf. 




THE ANOINTING OF JESUS 
AT HIS BAPTISM 



God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the 
Holy Ghost and with power." Acts 10: 
38. (See Matt. 3:16.) 




DANIEL'S PRAYER ANSWERED 



*'I am now come forth to give thee skill 
and understanding." Dan. 9:22. 



THE PROPHECY FULFILLED 

EVENTS OF THE ** SEVENTY WEEKS " AND END OF THE 

2300 YEARS 



The angel explained to Daniel the events of the seventy 
weeks allotted to Jerusalem and its people "to finish the 
transgression.'' Seven weeks and threescore and two weeks 
(69 weeks) of the seventy were to reach to the Messiah. The 
angel's words were: 

"Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and 
upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression. . . . Know 
therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the 
commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the 
Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and 
two weeks [69 weeks, or 483 days]." Dan. 9: 24, 25. 

229 



230 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

The sixty-nine weeks, symbolic time, are 483 years, which 
were to reach from the commandment to restore and build 
Jerusalem to Messiah the Prince. 

The Time of the Messiah's Coining 

The commandment of Artaxerxes to restore and build 
Jerusalem, as we have seen, went forth in 457 b. c. Reckon- 
ing from that date, 483 full years bring us to a. d. 27, when, 
according to the prophecy, the Messiah should appear. 

Messiah means ''anointed." The anointing of Jesus, and 
His manifestation as the Anointed One, was at His baptism: 

"Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out 
of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, 
and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and hght- 
ing upon Him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, Tliis is 
My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Matt. 3: 16, 17. 

Thus Jesus was anointed as the Messiah (see Acts 10: 38), 
and John proclaimed: "Behold the Lamb of God, which 
taketh away the sin of the world." John 1:29. 

When did this baptism and anointing take place? The 
Gospel of Luke supplies the historical facts for fixing the 
year: 

"In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, 
Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea," etc. Luke 3: 1-3. 

Tiberius followed Augustus, who died in a. d. 14. But 
before the latter's death, Tiberius was associated with him 
on the throne. Some modern historians date this appoint- 
ment of Tiberius as Caesar from a. d. 13; but the "History of 
Rome," by Dion Cassius, a Roman senator, born in the second 
century, shows, under events of a. d. 12, that Augustus rec- 
ognized Tiberius as holding the imperial dignity at that time. 
(Book 56, chap. 26.) Again, Dr. Philip Schaff says: 

"There are coins from Antioch in Syria of the date a. tj. 765 [a. d. 12], 
with the head of Tiberius and the inscription, Kaisar, Sehastos (Augus- 
tus)." — "History of the Christian Church/' Vol. /, p. 120, footnote. 



The Prophecy Fulfilled 231 

These coins from Syria bear certain witness that the first 
year of Tiberius should be counted from a. d. 12. Therefore 
*'the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar" would be 
A. D. 27, just 483 years from the going forth of the command- 
ment to restore Jerusalem. The prophecy of the sixty-nine 
weeks was fulfilled — the Messiah had come. 

* Confirming the Covenant 

But "one week" of the seventy remained — seven years. 
Of the Messiah's work during this time the angel said: 

''He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: 
and in the midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and 
the oblation to cease." Dan. 9:27. 

Christ's death upon the cross made ''the sacrifice and the 
oblation to cease," so far as their appointed force was con- 
cerned. After three years and a half of ministry, "in the 
midst" of this seven-year period, the prophetic week, the Mes- 
siah was lifted up on Calvary. For centuries the sure word 
of prophecy had pointed to this supreme hour in the work- 
ing out of the plan of salvation. When the time was ful- 
filled, the promise of God was fulfilled also, and the divine 
Sacrifice was offered. 

"Paschal Lamb, by God appointed, 

All our sins on Thee were laid; 
By Almighty Love anointed. 

Thou redemption's price hast paid 
AU Thy people are forgiven 

Through the virtue of Thy blood; 
Opened is the gate of heaven, 

Peace is made 'twixt man and God." 

With the offering of the great Sacrifice, all the typical 
offerings ceased to have significance. The veil of the temple 
was rent when the Lamb of God expired upon the cross, — 
sign to all that He had caused "the sacrifice and the oblation 
to cease." 




THE CRUCIFIXION 
OF CHRIST 



"In the midst of the week He shall i?ause 
the sacrifice and the oblation to cease." 
Dan. 9:27. 



The Prophecy Fulfilled 



233 




THE RENT VEIL 



"The veil of the temple was rent in 
twain from the top to the bottom." 
Mark 15:38. 



The Messiah was to "confirm the covenant with many for 
one week," filHng out the seventy weeks allotted in God's 
merciful patience especially to the people of the Jews. Three 
and a half years of Christ's personal ministry on earth had 



234 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



been devoted to the chosen people. Now, after His ascen- 
sion, He was still, in the persons of His disciples, to press 
the gospel of the new covenant especially upon the Jewish 
people — ^'to the Jew first," and '' beginning at Jerusalem." 
This last seven-year period, beginning in a. d. 27, ended 
in A. D. 34. By that time the opposition of the Jews was be- 




PETER PREACHING IN THE 
HOUSE OF CORNELIUS 



They that were scattered abroad went 
everywhere preaching the word." Acts 
8:4. 



coming exceedingly bitter. As a people they were rejecting 
again the divine invitation extended by the risen Christ 
through His witnesses. About a. d. 34 Stephen was mar- 
tyred. The same council that, against all evidence, had re- 
jected the Messiah, again rejected the appeal of the Holy 
Ghost shining visibly on Stephen's countenance. 



The Prophecy Fulfilled 235 

The believers in Jerusalem were driven out by persecution; 
and "they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preach- 
ing the word." Acts 8:4. The Gentiles gave heed in Sa- 
maria, and the Ethiopian received the gospel on the road to 
Gaza. The gospel message had fairly passed the boundaries 
of Jerusalem and was on its way to the "uttermost parts of 
the earth." 

Though the seventy weeks cut off upon the Jewish people 
and upon the holy city had ended, to the world's end the 
gospel of Christ's salvation is for that people as well as for 
all other nations. 

The Ending of the 2300 Years 

It must not be forgotten that the angel was explaining 
to Daniel the vision and prophecy of the long prophetic period 
that was to reach to the cleansing of the sanctuary at the 
time of the end. 

These events of the first seventy weeks of that period 
were "to seal up the vision and prophecy." Dan. 9: 24. The 
shedding of the blood of the divine Sacrifice "to make recon- 
ciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteous- 
ness," set Heaven's seal to the vision. As surely as the great 
Offering had been made, so surely the cleansing of the sanc- 
tuary would be accomplished by the ministry of our High 
Priest in heaven. 

And the exact fulfilment of the time schedule for this 
first portion of the prophetic period, set seal to the declaration 
that when the full 2300 years should run out, the closing min- 
istry of Christ would surely begin in the heavenly sanctuary. 

From 457 b. c, when the commandment of Artaxerxes 
to restore Jerusalem went forth, the measuring line of the 
2300 years reaches to the year a. d. 1844. In that year the 
time of the prophecy came. Then the cleansing of the sanc- 
tuary was to begin. 

The prophet John, in the Revelation, beheld the opening 
of this last phase of the ministry of Christ in the most holy 



236 Our Day in the Ldght of Prophecy 

place of the temple of God. '^The temple of God was 
opened in heaven," he says, "and there was seen in His 
temple the ark of His testament." Rev. 11:19. The 
prophet heard voices saying, "The nations were angry, and 
Thy -wTath is come, and the time of the dead, that they 
should be judged." Verse 18. 

Again we must quote Daniel's description of the opening 
of this ministry in the most holy place of the heavenly temple. 
He saw thrones of judgment set up. He saw the moving 
throne of the Almighty, with its wheels of flaming glory, take 
its position for the final work of our High Priest in the holy 
of hoHes above: 

"I beheld till the thrones were cast down [placed], and 
the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, 
and the hair of His head like the pure wool: His throne was 
like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire. A fiery 
stream issued and came forth from before Him: thousand 
thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten 
thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the 
books were opened." Dan. 7:9, 10. 

Thig" was the scene enacted in the heavenly temple when 
the year 1844 brought the judgment hour. Then began in 
heaven the work of the investigative judgment, or the cleans- 
ing of the heavenly sanctuary, during which the case of every 
individual wiU come in review before God. 

When that work of investigation is finished, the ministry 
of Christ for sin will end, human probation will close, and our 
Lord will quickly come as King of kings and Lord of lords, to 
gather His redeemed, while all sinners wUl be destroyed by 
'Hhe brightness of Hjs coming." 2 Thess. 2:8. 

In the vision of Daniel 8, as the great apostasy was seen 
warring against God's truth, the question was asked, "How 
long shall be the vision, ... to give both the sanctuary and 
the host to be trodden underfoot?" The answer was, in 
effect, In 1844 the cleansing of the sanctuary will begin in 



The Prophecy Fulfilled 237 

heaven, — the hour of God's judgment, that will give God's 
answer to sin and apostasy. 

We are living in the great antitypical day of atonement, 
for which all heaven has been waiting. The end is at hand. 
And while that work is proceeding in heaven above, the Lord 
proclaims a special message on earth, lifting up again truths 
long trodden underfoot, and calHng men to prepare for the 
coming of the Lord. 



How Shall We Stand? 

"For the hour of His judgment is come." 

"The judgment is set, the books have been opened; 
How shall we stand in that great day 
When every thought, and word, and action, 
God, the righteous Judge, shall weigh? 

"The work is begun with those who are sleeping. 
Soon will the Uving here be tried, 
Out of the books of God's remembrance, 
His decision to abide. 

"O, how shall we stand that moment of searching. 
When all our sins those books reveal? 
When from that court, each case decided. 
Shall be granted no appeal?" 





THE THIRD ANGEL'S 
MESSAGE 



Here is the patience of the saints: here are 
they that keep the commandments of God, 
and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14:12. . 




THE GOSPEL COMMISSION 



**Go ye into all the world, and preach 
the gospel to every creature." Mark 
16:15. 



A WORLD-WIDE MOVEMENT 

FORETOLD IN THE PROPHECY OF REVELATION 14 

While the work of the judgment hour, or period, — the 
cleansing of the sanctuary, — is proceeding in the heavenly 
temple above, the Lord sends to the world a special message 
of preparation for the coming of the Lord. 

It would not be the divine way to let this solemn judg- 
ment in heaven come unheralded to men. Daniel's proph- 
ecy had fixed the time of its beginning; and the question asked 
in the prophet's hearing, '^How long shall be the vision . . . 
to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under- 
foot?" suggested that when the time came, the truths of God 
that had been trodden underfoot through the ages would be 
lifted up and proclaimed anew to all the world. 

With the coming of the judgment hour, in the year 1844, 
there arose just, such a work, a definite gospel movement, 
that has ever since been carrying the message for the hour 
to the ends of the earth. 

239 



240 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

The Way Prepared for the Rise of the Movement 

But there was a preliminary work to be done, to prepare 
the way for the definite advent movement and message. 

In the days of Israel of old, as the time for the cleansing 
of the sanctuary drew near, the people were forewarned of 
the approach of the solemn hour. The day of atonement 
— "the tenth day of the seventh month" — was a typical 
hour of judgment. AU the people were to prepare their 
hearts for that great day. 

To this end, the Lord appointed the first day of the seventh 
month a day of sounding of the trumpets. Lev. 23 : 24. The 
silver trumpets, pealing forth on that day, proclaimed to all 
that the day of atonement was near at hand, when every case 
would be brought in review before the mercy-seat by the 
ministry of the high priest in the most holy place of the 
earthly sanctuary. 

True to the type, as the year 1844 drew near, when the 
great antitypical day of atonement was to open and the clos- 
ing work of Christ to begin in the most holy place of the 
heavenly temple, the trumpet call of the approaching judg- 
ment hour was set pealing through all Christendom. 

Events of the closing years of the eighteenth century and 
the early decades of the nineteenth, had stirred up Bible 
students to give greater attention to the study of the prophetic 
scriptures. It was seen that signs of the latter days were ap- 
pearing, and that every line of historic prophecy pointed to 
the near approach of Christ^s second coming. 

Here and there students of the Word saw that the 2300- 
year period of Dan. 8: 14, as explained in the ninth chapter, 
would end soon; and some arrived at the correct date, and 
looked to the year 1844 as the time when the judgment hour 
would come. 

Witnesses were raised up in Europe — in HoUand, Ger- 
many, Russia, and the Scandinavian countries. Joseph Wolff, 
the missionary to the Levant, preached in Greece, Palestine, 



A World-Wide Movement 241 

Turkey, Afghanistan, and other regions the coming of the 
judgment hour. WilUam Miller and many associates preached 
the message throughout America. 

Writing in the days just before 1844, Mourant Brock, a 
clergjnnan of the Church of England, said: 

"It is not merely in Great Britain that the expectation of the near 
return of the Redeemer is entertained, and the voice of warning raised, 
but also in America, India, and on the continent of Europe. In America, 
about three hundred ministers of the word are thus preaching * this gospel 
of the kingdom;' whilst in this country, about seven himdred of the 
Church of England are raising the same cry." — ^^ Advent Tracts" Vol. 
II, p. 135 (1844)' 

Not all who joined in the awakening cry at this time ex- 
plained the prophecies alike, or emphasized the definite year 
1844 as the beginning of the hour of God's judgment; though 
in America, Europe, and Asia the clear message of the ending 
of the prophetic time in 1844 was proclaimed with power by 
many voices. And as the time came, the world was ringing 
with the call to prepare to meet the judgment hour, even as 
the hosts of Israel were called by trumpet peals to prepare 
for the typical day of atonement. 

The nature of the event to come at the end of the 2300 
years was not understood by these early heralds of the advent 
hope. The general expectation was that the judgment hour 
meant the end of the world and the coming of the Lord. 
Though the word of prophecy indicated clearly that there 
was a special work to be done on earth while the judgment 
hour was proceeding in heaven, this was not clear to Bible 
students at the time. So when the prophetic period ended 
and the Lord did not come, believers in the prophetic truths 
were disappointed and unbelievers scoffed. But the call to 
prepare for the judgment hour was the message due to the 
world at that time, and the awakening cry was raised on 
every continent. 

In the days of the Saviour's first advent, the disciples 
and the populace had proclaimed the triumphal entry of 

16 



242 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

Christ into Jerusalem. They were at once disappointed; in- 
stead of enthroning Him as king, they T\itnessed His cruci- 
fixion. But in proclaiming the coming of Zion's King to 
Jerusalem, they were fulfilhng the prophecy that had been 
uttered, and were giving the message for that day, notwith- 
standing their mistaken view as to the events that would 
follow. 

Just so the trumpet call of the coming judgment hour was 
the message for the days of 1844; and the message was given, 
attended by the power of God. When the hour was at hand, 
the providence of God raised up faithful witnesses to pro- 
claim it. 

All this was preparatory to the rise of the definite advent 
movement of the prophecy, when the hour of God's judg- 
ment should begin. 

The Closing Work 

In vision, on the Isle of Patmos, the prophet John was 
given a view of the closing work of the gospel on earth, while 
the closing ministry of Christ was proceeding in heaven above. 
The prophet wrote: 

"I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having 
the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the 
earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and 
people, saying with* a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory 
to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship 
Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the foun- 
tains of waters." Rev. 14:6, 7. 

The message further warned against following the ways 
of the great apostasy; and in the vision the prophet was shown 
people in all lands taking their stand at the call of the mes- 
sage. The angel described them in these words: 

"Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that 
keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." 
Verse 12. 



A World-Wide Movement 



243 



Much as pictures appear to us when thrown in succession 
upon a screen, these scenes must have passed before the vision 
of the prophet. He saw the coming of the hour, the rise of 
the movement, and its extension into all lands; he heard the 
message sounding, and saw the kind of people doing the work 




PAUL WRITING TO TIMOTHY 
FROM ROME 



** There is laid up for me a crown of righteous- 
ness, which the Lord . . . shall give me at that 
day: and . . . unto all them also that love His 
appearing." 2 Tim. 4:8. 



— a people keeping "the commandments of God, and the 
faith of Jesus." 

Centuries had passed, after this word was written in the 
Book, when the flight of time at last brought the hour of 
the prophecy — the year 1844. That very year witnessed 
the rise of the definite advent movement which is still pro- 
claiming the very message of the prophecy to the world. 

It was in the year 1844, in New England, that a little 
group of believers in the blessed hope of Christ's soon coming, 
saw clearly, from their study of the Bible, that the New Testa- 
ment platform of ''the commandments of God, and the faith 



244 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

of Jesus/' emphasized in this prophecy of the judgment hour, 
meant the keeping of the fourth commandment as well as the 
other nine. Thereupon they began to keep and to teach the 
Sabbath of the Lord, the seventh day of the week, made holy 
and blessed and commanded by God. 

One member of this group of commandment-keeping Ad- 
ventists was Frederick Wheeler, from whose dictation the 
following statement was prepared, fixing exactly the facts as 
to the time: 

"As a Methodist minister he was convinced of the advent truth by 
reading William MiUer's works in 1842, and joined in preaching the first 
message [that of the judgment hour]. In March, 1844, he began to keep 
the true Sabbath, in Washington, N. H." — Review and Herald {Washing' 
ton, D. C), Oct. 4, 1906. 

They were but a Kttle band, those behevers in New Hamp- 
shire, but the time of the prophecy had come, and with the 
coming of the hour there was the nucleus of the movement 
forming, behevers in the near coming of the Lord, preaching 
the message of the prophecy, ^'The hour of His judgment 
is come," and keeping ''the commandments of God, and the 
faith of Jesus." 

From that small beginm'ng has grown the movement that 
Seventh-day Adventists stand for, spreading through all the 
world today. 

It was in the year following 1844 that Joseph Bates, of 
Massachusetts, a retired sea captain, and a preacher of the 
advent hope, began to keep the Sabbath. Captain Bates 
wrote and pubhshed, and soon others, following his example, 
embraced the Bible Sabbath. 

As the Scripture teaching concerning the sanctuary was 
studied, Hght came flooding in. It was seen that the great 
prophetic period of Daniel 8, which ended in 1844, marked 
the opening of Christ's ministry in the most holy place of the 
heavenly sanctuary, the work of the judgment hour in heaven; 
and there, plamly revealed in Revelation 14, was a special 



A World-Wide Movement 245 

gospel message to be carried to all the world while the judg- 
ment hour still continued. 

The little company that began to keep the command- 
ments of God as Adventist believers in 1844, did not under- 
stand that they were beginning the definite movement fore- 
told by the prophecy. They only determined to turn from 
traditions that had made void God's law, and to obey the law 
of the Most High, whose servants they were. 

But in the light of the Scripture prophecy and of events, 
we can see clearly the hand of God leading that httle band 
into the right pathway when the year of 1844 came; and the 
work there begun has grown into the world-wide movement 
of today. 

Nearly two thousand years before, it had been written in 
the ''sure word of prophecy" that when the hour of God's 
judgment came, a people keeping God's commandments 
would arise and spread forth into all the world with the last 
gospel message. The long prophetic period of Daniel 8 had 
fixed the year 1844 as the time when the judgment hour would 
begin and when the people of the prophecy must appear. 

When the year came, that people appeared, keeping ''tht- 
commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." When the 
hour struck, the work began. This advent movement was 
born of God in fulfilment of prophecy. And the mission of 
the movement is to lift up again the standard of truths ob- 
scured by tradition and trodden underfoot, and to call all men 
to the New Testament platform of the ''com.mandments 
of God, and the faith of Jesus," where every behoving soul 
may find safe refuge in these closing moments of the judgment 
hour in the courts above. 




3 5 




THE TWO BEASTS OF 
REVELATION 13 



Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour 
of His judgment is come." Rev. 14:7. 



THE JUDGMENT-HOUR MESSAGE 



THE GOSPEL FOR OUR DAY 

The gospel message for this time of the judgment hour 
is set forth in the vision of Revelation 14: 

'I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having 
the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the 
earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and 
people, saying with a loud voice. Fear God, and give glory to 
Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him 
that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains 
of waters. 

''And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is 
fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations 
drink of the wine of 'the wrath of her fornication. 

''And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud 
voice. If any man worship the beast and his image, and re- 
ceive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall 
drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out 

247 



248 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall 
be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the 
holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke 
of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have 
no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, 
and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. 

''Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that 
keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." 
Rev. 14:6-12. 

When this message has been heralded to all nations, ac- 
cording to prophecy the end wiU come, for the next scene 
brought before the prophet's vision was the coming of Christ 
to reap the harvest of the earth: 

''I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud 
one sat Hke unto the Son of man, having on His head a golden 
crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle." Verse 14. 

The outhne of the message given here reveals certain main 
features : 

1. A Gospel Message 

It is not a new or another gospel. There is but one gospel. 
This message is "the everlasting gospel" in terms that meet 
the situation in the time of the judgment hour. The advent 
movement carries the blessed message of full salvation from 
sin by faith in Jesus Christ. 

2. A Solemn Warning 

The message is God's final answer to the age-long perver- 
sions of His truth. Even the warnings uttered vibrate with 
the saving grace and winning power of God's love in Christ 
Jesus our Lord. 

In the vision of Daniel 8, the prophet was shown the 
working of apostasy in the latter times, as it "cast down the 
truth to the ground" and "practiced and prospered." But 
in answer to the question, "How long?" the great prophetic 
period of the 2300 years was given, at the end of which (in 
1844) the judgment work in heaven was to begin. When that 



The Judgment-Hour Message 249 

work is finished, Christ's glorious appearing will end the reign 

of sin and error. 

And while the closing judgment work is proceeding in 

heaven, this message of the judgment hour lifts up on earth 

the standard of truths trodden underfoot, and the Lord utters 

His last warning against sin and apostasy. It is a terrible 

word that He speaks. Bengelius described it as — 

"that threatening pronounced which is the greatest in aU the Scriptures, 
and which shaU resound powerfully from the mouth of the third angel." 
— ^^Introduction to Apocalypse," Preface xxix {London, 1757). 

The Lord is in earnest with men in this hour when the 
judgment, now passing on the dead, must also soon seal the 
eternal destiny of all the living. Hence the message chal- 
lenges every soul to a decision. 

Looking forward to the time when this message should 

be due, John Wesley wrote : — 

"Happy are they who make the right use of these divine mes- 
sages." — "Notes on New Testament," on Revelation 14' 

These warnings are part of the "everlasting gospel.'^ 
Whosoever, therefore, preaches the full gospel of Christ in 
these last days must sound this solemn call. 

3. A Call to Loyalty to God 

'Fear God,'' is the call, "Worship Him." In the pre- 
ceding vision of the thirteenth chapter, the Lord had shown 
the prophet the work of an ecclesiastical power, symbolized 
by a leopardlike beast, that was to speak great things, and 
that was to persecute believers through long centuries, war- 
ring against God's truth and His sanctuary. "All the world 
wondered after the beast." The prophet said, 

"All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose 
names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb." Rev. 
13:8. 

While worldly influence and the voice of popular religion 
exalt this ecclesiastical power and give glory to it, the gospel 
message calls all men to worship God. 



250 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

''Fear God, and give glor^^ to Him; for the hour of His 
judgment is come: and worship Him. ... If any man wor- 
ship the beast and his image, and receive his mark,* . . . 
the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God." 

The issue, it is clear, involves the question of authority. 
Shall God be recognized as supreme? or shall this ecclesi- 
astical power, whose rise and work were foretold in the proph- 
ecy, be recognized as the great authority? 

The Work of the Papal Power 

Any comparison between this leopard beast of Revelation 
13 and the ''httle horn" of the fourth beast of Daniel 7, shows 
plainly that the same power is represented in each. The same 
voice is heard ''speaking great things," the same persecuting 
spirit is shown, the same warfare against God's truth. It is the 
Roman Papacy, in its exaltation of human authority above the 
divine, that "lawless one" of Paul's prophecy, setting itself 
forth as God in the temple of God, treading underfoot the word 
and the law of the Most High, as foretold by Daniel: 



* The use of a mark, or sign, to designate the divinity worshiped, is com- 
mon in non-Christian religions. One may see the Hindu returning from the 
temple with the mark of Vishnu or other deity freshly painted upon the fore- 
head. Of the ancient usage, from which this Bible symbol of the " mark " is 
taken. Dr. John Potter says, in his "Antiquities of Greece : " 

'• Slaves were not only branded with stigmata for a punishment of their 
offenses, hut (which was the common end of these marks) to distinguish them, 
in case they should desert their masters : for which purpose it was common 
to brand their soldiers ; only with this difference, that whereas slaves were 
commonly stigmatized in their forehead, and with the name or some peculiar 
character belonging to their masters, soldiers were branded in the hand, and 
with the name or character of their general. After the same manner, it was 
likewise customary to stigmatize the worshipers and votaries of some of the 
gods : whence Lucian. speaking of the votaries of the Syrian goddess, affirms, 
' They were all branded with c-ertain marks, some in the palms of their hands, 
and others in their necks : whence it became customary for all the Assyrians 
thus to stigmatize themselves.' And Theodoret is of opinion that the Jews 
were forbidden to brand themselves with stigmata [Lev. 19 : 28], because the 
idolaters by that ceremony used to consecrate themselves to their false ueities. 

" The marks used on these occasions were various. Sometimes they con- 
tained the name of the god. sometimes his particular ensign : such were the 
thunderbolt of Jupiter, the trident of Neptune, the ivy of Bacchus : whence 
Ptolemy Philopater was by some nicknamed Gallus. because his body was 
marked with the figures of ivy leaves. Or, lastly, they marked themselves 
with some mystical number, whereby the god"s name was described. Thus 
the sun. which was signified by the number "DCVIII. is said to have been rep- 
resented by these two^numeral letters XH (Conf. Martianus Capello). These 
three ways of stigmatizing are all expressed by St. John in the book of Rev- 
elation : 'And he'causeth all. both small and great, rich and poor, free and 
bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads : and that 
no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, 
or the ntmiber of his name.' " — Vol. I, pp. 63, 66 {London, 172S). 



The Judgment-Hour Message 251 

"He shall speak great words. against the Most High, and 
shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to 
change times and laws." Dan. 7: 25. 

Against the recognition of the assumed authority of this 
power, the gospel message of Revelation 14 sounds its solemn 
warning: ''If any man worship the beast and his image, and 
receive his mark.'' 

The Image to the Papacy 

What is this image? Plainly an image to the Papacy 
must be some religious authority or federation not organi- 
cally of the Papacy itseK, but adopting papal principles and 
seeking to enforce these principles by civil power, just as the 
Papacy has ever done, where possible. This development in 
likeness of the Papacy was shown the prophet in the latter 
part of the vision of Revelation 13. He saw the image formed, 
and in vision witnessed its determined efforts to enforce upon 
men the mark, or sign, of the Papacy: 

''He exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, 
and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to wor- 
ship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. . . . 
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free 
and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their 
foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that 
had the mark, or the name of the beast.." Rev. 13: 12-17. 

The Mark, or Sign, of Papal Authority 

The Roman Papacy sets forth the Sunday institution as 
the mark of the authority of the church to substitute ecclesi- 
astical tradition and custom for the Word of God. Thus, 
Monsignor Segur, in "Plain Talks about the Protestantism of 
Today," says: 

" The observance of Sunday by Protestants is an homage they pay, in 
spite of themselves, to the authority of the church." — Page 213. 

It was to this change in the Sabbath by tradition, con- 
trary to the plain command of God to keep holy the seventh 



252 Our Day m the Light of Prophecy 

day, that the famous Council of Trent appealed when it gave 
Rome's answer to the Reformation cr^*' of *'The Bible and 
the Bible only/'" The council had long debated the ground 
of its answer. The historian says: 

"Finally, at the last opening on the eighteenth of January, 1562, 
their last scruple was set aside: the archbishop of Rheggio made a speech 
in which he openly declared that tradition stood above Scripture. The 
authority of the church could therefore not be bound to the authority of 
the Scriptures, because the church had changed Sabbath into Sunday, 
not by the command of Chnst. but by its own authority. With this, to 
be sure, the last illusion was destroyed, and it was declared that tradition 
does not signify antiquity, but continual inspiration." — Dr. J. H. Holtz- 
man, "Canon and Tradition," p. 263. 

Ever since this memorable council, the Sunday institution 
has been held forth as the mark of the power of the church to 
command rehgious observances. Thus, again Keenan's ''Doc- 
trinal Catechism'' says: 

"Question. — Have you any other way of proving that the church has 
power to institute festivals of precept? 

"Answer. — Had she not such power, she could not have done that in 
which all modem rehgionists agree with her, — she could not have sub- 
stituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the ob- 
servance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no 
Scriptural authority." — Page 17 4, 

The prophecy of Daniel declared that this power would 
''think" to change the times and laws of the IMost High; and 
the change of the Sabbath commandment is set forth as the 
mark of the church's authority above the written law of the 
Most High. 

Most remarkable of all, Protestant organizations are de- 
fending the unscriptural observance of the humanly estab- 
hshed first-day sabbath in contradiction to the law of God, 
which declares that ''the seventh day is the Sabbath of the 
Lord thy God." And these organizations, in denial of the 
Protestant principle of rehgious liberty-, are seeking power 
to enforce Sunday obsen^ance by civil law. But this is to 
make a very image to the Roman Papacy — a church u^lng 
the power of the state to enforce rehgious observance. 



The Judgment-Hour Message .253 

It was all foretold in the prophetic word. The prophet 
was shown (Rev. 13: 11-17) this likeness or image to the 
Papacy — ecclesiastical organizations not of the Papacy it- 
self, but following papal principles in this matter — seeking 
to compel men to receive the mark of the papal apostasy. 

Against the workings of both the Papacy and this image 
to the Papacy, the last message of the ''everlasting gospel" 
lifts its warning cry: 

"If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive 
his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink 
of the wine of the wrath of God." 

It is the time of the judgment hour, when God was to lift 
up the standard of truths long trodden underfoot. In the 
heavenly sanctuary Christ's closing judgment work is going 
forward, preparatory to His coming in consuming glory to end 
the reign of sin. On earth the Lord is sending the last gos- 
pel message to men, warning against sin and error, and calling 
all men to worship God, and to keep "the commandments of 
God, and the faith of Jesus." 

The Sign of Jehovah's Authority 

God also has His sign, or mark, of authority. He bases 
His claims to supreme auth Drity upon the fact of His creative 
power. As Creator, His is the authority and the power. 

"The Lord is the true God. . . . He hath made the 
earth by His power." Jer. 10: 10-12. 

And the divinely established memorial of this creative 
power is the holy Sabbath. The Sabbath is the mark, or sign, 
of the true God: 

"Hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between 
Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your 
God." Eze. 20:20.^ 

On one side is the mark, or sign, of apostasy from God; 
on the other the mark, or sign, of loyalty to God. Which 
mark will men receive, as the issue is pressed upon every soul 



254 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



for decision? On which side shall we stand? Under whose 
banner shall we be found when the judgment hour closes? 
The test that came to Pilate comes anew to men as Christ's 
message presses for acceptance. " What shall I do then with 
Jesus?" asked the Roman governor — and yielded to popular 
clamor. His fatal decision in the time of testing warns us 




PILATE'S FATAL DECISION IN 
THE HOUR OF TRIAL 



Pilate saith unto them. What shall I 
do then with Jesus which is called 
Christ?" Matt. 27:22. 



to decide for Christ and for the word of his salvation now, in 
this hour of God's judgment. 

The message of Rev. 14 : 6-14 is going to all the world now. 
Every year thousands of new voices join in telling it. Print- 
ing presses are printing it in many languages. Schools and 
colleges in every continent are educating thousands of Seventh- 
day Adventist youth, keeping before them, as the highest 
aim of life, the hastening of the advent message to the world. 
Sanitariums in many lands, while training medical mission- 
ary evangelists, are at the same time ministering to the sick. 



The Judgment-Hour Message 255 

and teaching the principles of Bible health and temperance. 
The movement necessarily emphasizes every principle of 'Hhe 
everlasting gospel," while pressing upon all the solemn issue 
that loyalty to Christ now means to turn from unscriptural 
tradition and custom to the commandments of God and the 
faith of Jesus. However ancient the custom of observing Sun- 
day, it is but an innovation, setting aside the Word of God and 
the example of Jesus Christ. As St. C^^prian said: ''Usage 
without truth is only an antiquated error." The clear light 
of Holy Scripture now calls the believer away from the path 
of error to the way of Hght. 

"The older error is, it is the worse, 
Continuation may provoke a curse; 
If the Dark Age obscured our fathers' sight, 
Must their sons shut their eyes against the hght?" 

— Bishop Ken. 

In times past Christian believers have been unwittingly 
following the lead of the Papacy in this matter. The Lord 
holds no man accountable for light that he did not have. 
Reformation is a progressive work. Of the past we may 
say with Paul: 

''The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now 
commandeth all men everywhere to repent: because He hath 
appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in 
righteousness." Acts 17:30, 31. 

Now, with this "hour of God's judgment" already come, 
the entire covering of papal tradition is to be torn aside, and 
when Jesus comes in glory, in every land will be found be- 
lievers having the faith and keeping the commandments of 
God. 

All this was shown to John on the Isle of Patmos, — the 
coming of the judgment hour, the rise of the advent move- 
ment, and the heralding of the last message to the nations. 

What John saw in vision nearly two thousand years ago, 
we see fulfilling before our eyes today. But it is not enough 
to see it; we must have a part in it, be a part of it. 



LUCIFER PLOTTING AGAINST 
THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD 



I will exalt my throne above the stars 
of God; ... I will be like the Most 
High." Isa. 14:13, 14. 




SATAN ENTERS THE 
GARDEN OF EDEN 



"The wages of sin is death." 
Rom. 6:23. 



THE ORIGIN OF EVIL 

The Beginning of the Great Controversy Between 

Christ and Satan 

The great controversy between good and evil, that has 
been waged on earth ever since man's fall, had its origin in 
heaven. Certain angels rebelled against God and His govern- 
ment. 

''There was war in heaven: Michael and His angels fought 
against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, 
and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more 
in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old ser- 
pent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole 
world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were 
cast out with him." Rev. 12:7-9. 

Thus came the forces of evil into this world, which have 

been working through all the ages to draw men from allegiance 

to God, and to infuse into human hearts the same spirit of 

disobedience which wrought the ruin of Satan and his angels. 

17 257 



258 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 
The Cause of the Downfall 



Christ stated the principle: ''If therefore the light that is 
in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! " Matt. 6 : 23. 

The principle finds its utmost appHcation in the great 
reversal, by which Lucifer, the light bearer in heaven, be- 
came Satan, the adversary, the prince of darkness. 

In the pride and self-exaltation of Tyre, of old, the Lord 
saw manifested the spirit of the god of this world; so, in de- 




CHRIST AND NICODEMUS 



"Except a man be born again, he cannot see 
the kingdom of God," John 3:3. 



daring His message of rebuke to the prince of Tyre, the Lord 
describes the cause and history of Satan's fall: 

''Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God. . . . Thou 
art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee 
so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast 
walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou 
wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, , 



The Origin of Evil 259 

till iniquity was found in thee. . . . Thine heart was lifted 
up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom 
by reason of thy brightness." Eze. 28: 13-17. 

Likewise, in the swelling pride of Babylon the Lord rec- 
ognized the spirit of the leader of the rebellious angels. In 
one of the messages to Babylon is this reference to the vault- 
ing ambition of Lucifer in heaven: 

''How art thou fallen from heaven, Lucifer ["day-star," 
margin], son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the 
ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said 
in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne 
above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the 
congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above 
the heights of the clouds; I will be hke the Most High.'' 
Isa. 14:12-14. 

Lucifer, his powers now perverted to evil, deceived many 
of the angels, persuading them to join him in rebellion against 
the government of God; with the result that Satan and all 
his host were cast out. Christ said, ''I beheld Satan as light- 
ning fall from heaven.'' Luke 10: 18. 

"Him the Almighty Power 
Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky." 

The Earth as the Battle Ground 

Then the great controversy which began in heaven was 
transferred to this earth, and now centers around man. For 
'Hhat old serpent," the leader of the fallen angels, deceived 
man, and persuaded him to distrust God and to choose his 
own way in preference to God's way. Thus came sin and 
death into the world. And Satan, who had overcome man 
at the forbidden tree, became by his own usurpation and by 
man's perfidy, "the prince of this world." 

But Christ gave himself to save man, to deliver him from 
the bondage of sin, and to restore him to the glorious liberty 
of the sons of God. The same mighty power that overcame 
Satan and his angels in heaven is able to overcome his power 



The Origin of Evil 261 

in human hearts and Hves. The controversy is still between 
Christ and Satan, and man's salvation or destruction is the 
aim of the contending forces. 

There is no neutral ground. Every soul must choose as 
to which side he will yield allegiance. In this choice lies 
his eternal destiny. 

"Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants 
to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin 
unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" Rom. 6: 16. 

Therefore the Lord pleads with men, ''Choose life.'' 
Every soul that chooses life has the promise of it, for Christ 
"is able ... to save them to the uttermost that come unto 
God by Him." Heb. 7:25. 

The Judgment upon Satan 

From the time of Satan's rebellion it was assured, by the 
very omnipotence of God, that there would come a last 
judgment when evil would be destroyed from the universe. 
This execution of judgment upon the fallen angels is thus re- 
ferred to by Jude: 

"The angels which kept not their first estate, but left 
their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains 
under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." Verse 6. 

The evil spirits themselves know that this day is coming. 
When Christ was about to cast certain of them out of one who 
was possessed, they cried out, "Art Thou come hither to 
torment us before the time?" Matt. 8:29. 

Though the judgment of that last day was originally set 
for Satan and his angels, unrepentant men will have a. part 
in it, because they have joined Satan in his lawless rebellion. 
To the wicked it will be said: 

"Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, pre- 
pared for the devil and his angels." Matt. 25:41. 

Satan sees that the day is hastening; and the shorter the 
time in which to work, the greater his fury in seeking to draw 
souls to perdition. 



262 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

The warning comes to us in these last days: 
"Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for 
the devil is come down mito you, having great wrath, because 
he knoweth that he hath but a short time." Rev. 12: 12. 

Christ's second coming ends the reign of Satan in this 
world. The wicked are slain by the consuming glory of 
Christ's coming (2 Thess. 2:8); and the righteous are taken 
to heaven, beyond the reach of Satan's arts (1 Thess. 4: 16, 
17). The archenemy and his angels are thus left upon an 
earth devoid of human beings. Here he is chained for a 
thousand years, in this pit of desolation (Rev. 20:2, 5), his 
only companions the angels who fell with him, his only oc- 
cupation the contemplation of the ruin he has wrought and the 
destruction that still awaits him. 

By the second resurrection — that of the wicked dead, 
after the thousand years — Satan is again set free to ply his 
arts upon his subjects. As the holy city comes down out of 
heaven from God, with all the saints, Satan gathers his angels 
and all the forces of the lost of all the ages, to make an 
assault upon the city. The result was shown to the prophet 
in vision: 

"They went up on the breadth of the earth, and com- 
passed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: 
and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured 
them. And the devil that deceiveth them was cast into the 
lake of fire." Rev. 20:9, 10. 

That is the fate awaiting the author of sin. In the ac- 
count of Sf tan's pride and self -exaltation, uttered by the 
prophet in the message to Tyre, there occurs also this proph- 
ecy of the utter destruction that awaits him, when he shall 
bring his forces against the city of God in that last conflict : 

"I win bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of 
all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among 
the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, 
and never shalt thou be any more." Eze. 28: 18, 19. 



The Origin of Evil 



263 



This is the final victory of Christ over evil, in the great 
controversy that began in heaven. Satan exalted himself — 
and lost. Christ humbled Himself, even unto the death — 
and won the eternal triumph. 

*' Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh 
and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; 
that through death He might destroy him that had the power 
of death; that is, the devil." Heb. 2: 14. 




JESUS BY THE SEA 



"O Galilee, sweet Galilee, 
What mem'ries rise at thought of thee!' 




SAUL AND THE WITCH 
OF ENDOR 



"When thev shall say unto you. Seek unto them 
that have familiar spirits, . . . should not a 
people seek unto their God?" Isa. 8: 19, 




SATAN'S FIRST LIE 



"Ye shall not surely die." Gen. 3:4. 



SPIRITUALISM: ANCIENT AND MODERN 

The essential claim of Spiritualism is its assertion of 
power to hold communication with the spirits of the dead; or 
rather, it claims to have demonstrated that really there is 
no death. 

"There is no death; 
What seems so is transition." 

The late Prof. Alfred Russel Wallace, the English scien- 
tist, said of Spiritualism : — 

"It demonstrates, as completely as the fact can be demonstrated, 
that the so-called dead are still alive." — "On Miracles and Modern Spir- 
itiuilism" (London, 1875), p. 212. 

First Declaration of the Doctrine 

In the very first book of the Bible is a similar claim: "Ye 
shall not surely die.'' Gen. 3:4. 

But this declaration, while recorded in the Scriptures, is 
not the word of God. The Lord had declared to man that 
disobedience would bring death. But Satan, as the tempter 
in Eden, caused the woman to doubt the word of God: "The 

265 



266 



Our Day. in the Light of Prophecy 



serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die." And 
the woman beheved the tempter rather than God, and so 
sinned against the Creator. 

Having tempted man to disobedience, so bringing death 
into the world, what more natural, in the coiu-se of deception, 
than to endeavor to persuade the human family that, after 
all, there is no death; that what appears so is only an intro- 
duction to fuller life and activity? ''Ye shall not surely die." 




PHARAOH'S SORCERERS COUNTER- " Now tbe magicians of Egypt, they also 

FEITING THE WORK OF GOD did in like manner with their enchant- 

ments." Ex. 7:11. 

As mankind departed from right and lost the knowledge 
of God, dead heroes were deified as gods, and much of the 
pagan worship consisted in sacrifices to the sphits of the dead, 
supposed to be hving still and concerned with affairs in the 
land of the Hving. When Israel fell away from God and 
joined the Moabites in the worship of Baal-peor, the record 
says of the nature of the service: 

"They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor, and ate 
the sacrifices of the dead." ''Yea, they sacrificed their sons 
and their daughters imto devils." Ps. 106:28, 37. 



Spiritualism: Ancient and Modern 



267 



Instead of dealing with the spirits of the dead, the idol- 
atrous worshipers were really putting themselves in direct 
touch with the agencies of Satan, the fallen angels. 

Divine Warnings 

This explains the severity of the divine warnings against the 
ancient practice of necromancy, or mediumship. The Lord said ; 




DEMONISM IN THE DAYS 
OF CHRIST 



He said unto him. Come out of the man, 
thou unclean spirit." Mark 5:8. 



"Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek 
after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your 
God.'^ Lev. 19:31. 

''When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy 
God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abomina- 
tions of those nations. There shall not be found among you 
any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through 
the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or 
an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with 



268 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do 
these things are an abomination unto the Lord.'' Deut.18 :9-12. 

The ancient seance, where the living sought unto the dead 
for knowledge, was denounced by the prophet Isaiah : 

*'When they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that 
have famiHar spirits and unto the wizards, that chirp and 
that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? on 
behalf of the living should they seek unto the dead?" Isa. 
8: 19, A. R. V. 

"To the law and to the testimony!" the prophet cries. 
To seek unto the dead for knowledge is to turn from the law 
and the testimony, and to take the counsel of the direct agen- 
cies of Satan, the great deceiver. 

Modern Spiritualism 

What SpirituaHsm is may best be understood by the pro" 
phetic warnings concerning the revival of this great deception 
in the last days. The apostle spoke of these days as a time 
when seducing spirits would lead many away from the faith : 

"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter 
times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seduc- 
ing spirits, and doctrines of devils." 1 Tim. 4: 1. 

This deceptive working is an indication of the nearness 
of Christ's second coming: 

"Whose coming is according to the working of Satan 
with all power and signs and lying wonders." 2 Thess. 2:9, 
A. R. V. 

True to the sure word, now that the last days have come, 

there has arisen the movement of modern Spiritualism, with 

its signs and wonders, purporting to be wrought by the spirits 

of the dead. Professor Wallace says: 

"Modern Spiritualism dates from March, 1848; it beiag then that, 
for the first time, intelligent communications were held with the unknown 
cause of the mysterious knockings and other sounds similar to those which 
had disturbed the Mompesson and Wesley famihes in the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries." — "On Miracles and Modern Spiritualism" 
{London, 1875), p. 146. 



Spiritualism: Ancient and Modern 269 

It was in Hydeville, N. Y., in the family of Mr. Fox, that 
the modern cult originated, it being found that by myste- 
rious but clear sounds of knocking, unseen intelligences were 
able to communicate answers to questions asked. The ra- 
pidity of the spread of the great deception was remarkable. 
One of the Fox sisters, Mrs. A. Leah Underbill, wrote: 

"Since that day, starting from a small country village of western 
New York, Spiritualism has made its way — against tremendous obstacles 
and resistance, but under an impulse and a guidance from higher spheres 
— round the civilized globe. Starting from three sisters, two of them 
children, and the eldest a Httle beyond that age, ... its ranks of behev- 
ers, privately or pubhcly avowed, have grown within thirty-six years to 
miUions." — "The Missing Link in Modern Spiritualism," Introduction. 

Many at the time thought, as have many since, that the 
*'rappings" with which the manifestations began were caused 
by some trickery on the part of the Fox sisters, but men of 
unimpeachable standing and intelligence certified to the con- 
trary. Horace Greeley, famous editor of the New York Trib- 
une, wi'ote in his paper that the sisters had visited him in his 
home and courted the fullest investigation as to ''the alleged 
manifestations from the spirit world." As the result of his 
observations, he wrote: 

"Whatever may be the origin or the cause of the 'rappings,' the ladies 
in whose presence they occur do not make them. We tested this thor- 
oughly and to our entire satisfaction." — Id., pp. 160, 161. 

It was no mere sleight of hand that launched this cult 
upon the world as the last days came. Beyond all the physical 
manifestations, the religious idea in Spiritualism has leavened 
the religious thought of millions. No one can deny that the 
basic idea is the one that the serpent promulgated in Eden, 
*'Ye shall not surely die." 

Mrs. Emma Hardinge Britten, another of the Fox sisters, 

says of the discovery of 1848: 

"On the night of the thirty-first of March, 1848, we found beyond 
a shadow of a doubt or perad venture, that death had no power over the 
spirit. ... In a word, we found our so-called dead were all hving." — 
"Nineteenth Century Miracles'^ {Manchester, England), p. 554- 



Spiritualism: Ancient and Modern 271 

Now the Scriptures teach plainly what these agencies in 
Spiritualism are not, and what they are. 

What They Are Not 

They are not the spirits of the dead communicating mes- 
sages to the living. 

In one of the earhest written portions of Holy Scripture, 
the Lord declared plainly that the dead have no knowledge 
of the living: 

''He passeth: Thou changest his countenance, and send- 
est him away. His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it 
not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of 
them." Job 14:20, 21. 

The dead have no part in any communications with the 
living on earth: 

"Neither have they any more a portion forever in any- 
thing that is done under the sun." Eccl. 9:6 

What They Are 

Already we have told what they are in quoting the warn- 
ings of prophecy concerning the special deceptions of Satan 
in the last days. 

"The working of Satan with all power and signs and lying 
wonders." 2 Thess. 2:9. 

"Seducing spirits." 1 Tim. 4: 1. 

And as they were shown to the prophet John in a vision 
of the very end, he declared: 

"They are the spirits of devils, working miracles." Rev. 
16: 14. 

These are the agencies through which come the super- 
natural manifestations of Spiritualism. It is a terrible decep- 
tion that leads men and women to seek to satanic agencies, 
supposing that they are communicating with the spirits of 
their dead friends, Satan and his angels can readily sim- 
ulate the personality of the dead, and so deceive those who 
disobey God in seeking to the dead for knowledge. 



272 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

The Climax of Deception 

That the marvels of Spirituahsm would increase as the 
end nears, was plainly taught by our Sa^-iour in describing 
the workings of Satan just before the second advent. He left 
us the warning: 

''Then if any man shall say unto j^ou, Lo, here is Christ, 
or there; beheve it not. For there shall arise false Christs, 
and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; 
insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very 
elect.'' Matt. 24:23, 24. 

E\ddently, then, by the miracle-working power that he 
possesses, Satan will work mighty deceptions through both 
human and supernatural agencies.' And the crowning de- 
ception will be his own manifestation as the Promised One, 
simulating Christ's second coming. But the power and glory 
that will fill all earth and the heavens at Christ's coming, 
cannot be copied by Satan, with all his miracle-working skill. 
That is why it is so important that we understand the Bible 
teacMng as to the nature and manner of Christ's second ad- 
vent. The doctrine of the silent, secret, mystical coming is 
all abroad in the world, the teaching exactly calculated to 
prepare the way for Satan's purposes of deception. There- 
fore Christ forewarns us: 

''Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall 
saj' unto you, Behold, He is in the desert; go not forth: be- 
hold. He is in the secret chambers; beheve it not. For as 
the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto 
the west; so shall also the coming of. the Son of man be." 
Matt. 24:25-27. 

The teachings of ancient theosophy and spirituahsm — 
the mysticism of the East — have been permeating Christen- 
dom in recent years. ]\Ime. Jean Delaire, wi'iting in a London 
review, said some years ago: 

"India has apparently still a mission to fulfil, for her thought is slowly 
beginning to mold the thought of Europe and of America; our keenest 



Spiritualism: Ancient and Modern 



273 



minds are today studying her philosophy; our New Theology is founded 
upon the old, old Vedanta." — National Review, September, 1908, p. 131. 

This flood of ancient spiritualism from the East has come 
about according to Isaiah's prophecy of things that were to 
*'come to pass in the latter days:'* 

'^Thou hast forsaken Thy people the house of Jacob, be- 
cause they are filled with customs from the East, and are 
soothsayers like the Phihstines." Isa. 2:6, A. R. V. 

In 1909 one of the leading representatives of theosophical 

thought, Mrs. Annie Besant, of India, toured America with 

the message of a coming messiah. She announced: 

"My message is very simple: 'Prepare for the coming Christ.' We 
stand at the cradle of a new subrace, and each race or subrace has its 
own messiah. Hermes is followed by Zoroaster; Zoroaster by Orpheus; 
Orpheus by Buddha; Buddha by Christ. We now await with confidence 
a manifestation of the Supreme Teacher of the world, who was last mani- 
fested in Palestine. Everywhere in the West, not less than in the East, 
the heart of man is throbbing with the glad expectation of the new avatar.'* 

The leaven of the spiritualistic philosophy has been work- 
ing its way through Christendom during this generation. We 
see clearly that the evil one is preparing the way for his final 
work of deception. 




HOME OF THE FOX FAMILY, 
HYDESVILLt, N. Y. 

18 



Spiritualism originated in this house 
March 31| 1848. 




HE IS RISEN" 



COPYRIGHT. siANDARD PUB. CO. " Bccausc 1 livc, ye shall live 

also." John 14:19. 




MARY MEETS HER RISEN LORD 



He that believeth in Me, though he 
were dead, yet shall he live." John 
11:25. 



LIFE ONLY IN CHRIST 



MAN'S NATURE AND STATE IN DEATH 

A WIDE-OPEN door for Spiritualism is afforded by the 
teaching that man has Hfe in himself — immortality by na- 
ture; and that death is not really death, but another form 
of life. 

The Scriptures close this door of false hope, teaching us 
that man is mortal, that death is really death, and that 
immortality is the gift of God through Christ by the resur- 
rection from the dead. 

Clearly and definitely the Bible teaches that God only 
has immortality, styling Him ''the blessed and only Poten- 
tate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath 
immortality." 1 Tim. 6: 15, 16. 

This scripture disposes of every idea that man is immor- 
tal by nature, and opens the way for a consideration of the 
Scripture teaching concerning man's nature, his state in 
death, and the promise of hfe and immortality in Christ. 

275 



276 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

Man by Nature Mortal 

The word "mortal/' as used in that ancient question by 
EHphaz, describes man's nature: 

"Shall mortal man be more just than God?'* Job 4:17. 

In the creation, life was conditional upon the creature's 
relation to Christ the Creator, in whom all things consist: 

"All things were made by Him; and without Him was not? 
anything made that was made. In Him was life." John 1 : 3, 4. 

He was, and is, as the psalmist says, "the fountain of life." 
Cut off from vital connection with Him, there could be no con- 
tinuance of life. The Lord warned Adam that his life was 
conditional upon obedience. "In the day that thou eatest 
thereof," He said of the forbidden tree, "thou shalt surely 
die." Gen. 2: 17. It was a declaration that man was not 
immortal, but was dependent upon God for life. 

When by unbelief and sin man rejected God, the sentence 
— death eternal — must have been executed had not the plan 
of salvation intervened. But as the stroke of divine justice 
was falling upon the sinner, the Son of God interposed Him- 
self and received the blow. "He was bruised for our ini- 
quities." In the divine plan, the great sacrifice for man was 
as sure then as when, later, it was actually made on Calvary. 
Christ was "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." 

And there Adam, the sinner, now with a fallen human 
nature, which would be perpetuated in his descendants in 
aU subsequent time, was granted an extension of hfe, every 
moment of which, whether for him or for his posterity, was 
the purchase of Christ by His own death, in order that in 
this time of probation man might find forgiveness of sin 
and assurance of life to come. Adam was not created im- 
mortal, but was placed on probation, and had he continued 
faithful, the gift of immortahty must have been given him 
at some later time, after he had passed the test. As the 
original plan is carried out through Christ, "the second Adam," 
the gift of immortahty is bestowed finally upon all who pass 



lAfe Only in Christ 277 

the test of the judgment and are found in Christ, in whom 
alone is Ufe. 

Having fallen, Adam, now possessed of a sinful nature, must 
die. ^'The wages of sin is death/' Rom. 6: 23. It was im- 
possible that sin or sinners should be immortalized in God's 
universe. So, inasmuch as the tree of life in Eden had been 
made the channel of continuance of life to man, the Lord said : 

"Now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the 
tree of life, and eat, and live forever: therefore the Lord God 
sent him forth from the garden of Eden." Gen. 3:22, 23. 

This negatives the idea that there could ever be an im- 
mortal sinner, who should mar God's creation forever. Sin 
works out nothing but death. ''Sin, when it is finished, bring- 
eth forth death." James 1 : 15. Fallen himself, Adam could 
bequeath to his posterity only a fallen, mortal nature. So 
began the sad history summed up in the text: 

''Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, 
and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that 
all have sinned." Rom. 5: 12. 

Mortality Universal 

Mortality is written upon all creation. Ages ago the wise 
man wrote, "There is one event unto all: . . . they go to the 
dead." Eccl. 9:3. Human hearts everywhere and in all 
time have cried out against the remorselessness of the great 
enemy. "Do people die with you?" was the question met by 
Livingstone in the untraveled wilds of Africa. "Have you no 
charm against death?" The Greek as well as the barbarian 
confessed to the helplessness of man before the great enemy. 
Centuries before Christ, Sophocles the Athenian wrote: 

"Wonders are many! and none is there greater than man, who 
Steers his ship over the sea, driven on by the south wind, 
Cleaving the threatening swell of the waters around him. 

"He captures the gay-hearted birds; he entangles adroitly 
Creatures that live on the land and the brood of the ocean, 
Spreading his well-woven nets. Man full of devices! 



278 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



"Speech and swift thought free as wind, the building of cities; 
Shelters to ward off the arrows of rain, and to temper 
Sharp-biting frost — all these hath he taught himself. Surely 
Stratagem hath he for aU that comes! Never the future 
Finds him resourceless ! Deftly he combats grievous diseases, 
Oft from their grip doth he free himseK. Death alone vainly — 
Vainly he seeks to escape; 'gainst death he is helpless." 

— ChoriLS from Antigone, 

What unspeakable pathos in the cry of humanity^s help- 
lessness before death, the great enemy! But when Adam 
went out of Eden, it was with the assurance of life from the 




JESUS RAISING THE SON OF 
THE WIDOW OF NAIN 



"The gift of God is eternal life through 
Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 6:23. 



dead through the promised Seed, if faithful. It is the mes- 
sage of the one gospel for all time — everlasting life in Christ. 

^'God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten 
Son, that whosoever beheveth in him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life.'^ John 3: 16. 

As there is none other name under heaven by which men 
can be saved, so there is no other way of everlasting life or 
immortahty, save in Christ Jesus our Lord. 



Life Only in Christ 279 

When Immortality is Bestowed 

Christ said, ''I am the resurrection, and the life: he that 
beHeveth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." 
John 11:25. 

He has turned death, that would have been eternal, into a 
little time of sleep, from which he will awaken the believer. 
In the resurrection of the last day immortality is bcotowed, 
"in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last 
trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be 
raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this 
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must 
put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have 
put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on im- 
mortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is 
written, Death is swallowed up in victory." 1 Cor. 15: 52-54. 

"There is a blessed hope, 

More precious and more bright 
Than all the joyless mockery 
The world esteems delight. 

"There is a lovely star 

That lights the darkest gloom, 
And sheds a peacelul radiance o'er 
The prospects of the tomb." 

Not until the resurrection, ''at the last trump," is im- 
mortality conferred upon the redeemed. Note that it is not 
something immortal putting on immortality; but this "mor- 
tal" puts on immortality. Mark this: there is no life after 
death, save by the resurrection. "If there be no resurrection 
of the dead, . . . then they also which are fallen asleep in 
Christ are perished." 1 Cor. 15: 13-18. 

This resurrection, as stated by the apostle Paul, is not at 
death, but in the last day, when Christ shall come, and all 
His children that are in their graves shall hear His voice. 
Jesus says: 



280 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

"This is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one 
which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have ever- 
lasting life : and I will raise him up at the last day." John 6 : 40. 

That is why the coming of Christ has been the "blessed 
hope" of all the ages. 

Man's State in Death 

Between death and the resurrection, the dead sleep. Jesus 
declares that death is a sleep. Lazarus was dead, but Jesus 
said, ''Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." John 11: 11. It is the 
language of Inspiration throughout. The patriarch Job said : 

''Man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the 
ghost, and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, 
and the flood decayeth and drieth up: so man Heth down, 
and riseth not: tiU the heavens be no more [the heavens wiU 
be rolled back as a scroU at Christ's coming], they shall not 
awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.'' Job 14: 10-12. 

This hope of the resurrection at the last day was no in- 
distinct hope to the beHever in God's promises. The patri- 
arch continued: 

"If a man die, shall he Kve again? all the days of my ap- 
pointed time ^dll I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt 
call, and I wiU answer thee: Thou wilt have a desire to the 
work of Thine hands." Verses 14, 15. 

Job tells us of the place of his waiting for the Life-giver's 
caU: "If I wait, the grave is mine house." Job 17: 13. It is 
thence that Christ will call His own when He comes. "The 
hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves 
shall hear His voice, and shall come forth." John 5: 28, 29. 

Death is an unconscious sleep. It must of necessity be 
so; for death is the opposite of hfe. Therefore there is no con- 
sciousness of the passing of time to those who sleep in the 
grave. It is as if the eyes closed in death one instant, and 
the next instant, to the beKever's consciousness, he awakens 
to hear the animating voice of Jesus calUng him to glad im- 
mortaHty, and to see the angels catching up his loved ones 
to meet Jesus in the air. 



lAfe Only in Christ 281 

These scriptures, out of many, will suffice to show that 
man is not conscious in death: 

"His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in 
that very day his thoughts perish." Ps. 146:4. , 

"The hving know that they shall die: but the dead know 
not anything. . . . Also their love, and their hatred, and their 
envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion 
forever in anything that is done under the sun." Eccl. 9: 5, 6. 

Death is a sleep, which will continue until the resurrec- 
tion. Then the Lord will bring forth from the dust the same 
person who was laid away in death. 

Some have said that this Bible doctrine of the sleep of the 
dead until the resurrection is a gloomy one. Popular tradi- 
tion thinks of the blessed dead as going at once to heaven, 
which, say some, is a beautiful thought. But they forget 
that the same teaching consigns their unbelieving friends to 
immediate torment — and that, too, while awaiting the judg- 
ment of the last day. 

No; the Bible teaching is the cheering doctrine, the "blessed 
hope." All the faithful of all the ages are going into the 
kingdom together. This blessed truth appeals to the spirit 
that loves to wait and share joys and good things with loved 
ones. Of the faithful of past ages the apostle says: 

"These all, having obtained a good report through faith, 
received not the promise: God having provided some better 
thing for us, that they without us should not be made per- 
fect." Heb. 11:39, 40. 

They are waiting, that all together the saved may enter 
in. And the time of waiting is but an instant to those who 
"sleep in Jesus." 

David was a man of God, but the apostle Peter, speaking 
by the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, declared to the people 
of the city of David: "He is both dead and buried, and his 
sepulcher is with us unto this day. . . . For David is not 
ascended into the heavens." Acts 2:29-34. They with- 
out us have not been made perfect. They are all awaiting 



282 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

that glad day toward which the apostle Paul turned the last 
look of his mortal vision: 

''I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, 
I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a 
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, 
shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all 
them also that love his appearing." 2 Tim. 4: 7, 8. 

What joy in that day to march in through the gates into 
the eternal city, with Adam, and Abel, and Noah, and Abra- 
ham, and Paul, and all the faithful, and the loved ones of our 
own home circles, and dear comrades in service, every one 
clothed with immortahty, the gift of God in Christ Jesus our 
Redeemer! Horatius Bonar's hymn sings the joyful hope as 
the loved are laid away to ''sleep in Jesus:" 

"Softly within that peaceful resting place 

We lay their wearied hmbs, and bid the clay 
Press lightly on them tiU the night be past, 
And the far east give note of coming day. 

"The shout is heard, the Archangel's voice goes forth; 
The trumpet sounds, the dead awake and sing; 
The living put on glory; one glad band, 

They hasten up to meet their coming King." 

In a word, the Scripture teaches that God alone has im- 
mortality, that man is mortal, that death is a sleep, that life 
after death comes only by the resurrection of the last day, 
that the righteous are then given immortahty. Further, the 
Scripture teaches that later there will be a resurrection of the 
unjust, not unto life, but unto death, the second death, from 
which there is no release. 

Every doctrine of Scripture and of the gospel is in accord 
with this Bible teaching as to man's nature and his state in 
death. But the traditional view of the natural immortahty 
of the soul and of life in death, nullifies the Bible doctrines 
of hfe only in Christ and the resurrection, and the judgment, 
and the giving of rewards at Christ's coming, and the final 
judgment upon the wicked and its execution. 



lAJe Only in Christ 283 

A Few Questions Briefly Considered 

i. The ''Living SouV 

Says one, "Did not the Lord put into man an immortal 
soul?'' 

No; the Scripture says: 

''The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, 
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man be- 
came a Uving soul.'' Gen. 2:7. 

The soul was not put into the man, but when the Hfe- 
giving breath was breathed into his nostrils, the man himself 
became a living soul, a living being. The ordinary version 
(King James) gives ''a living soul" in the margin of Gen. 1: 
30, showing that the same expression is used of all the animal 
creation in the Hebrew text. The famous Methodist com- 
mentator, Dr. Adam Clarke, says on this phrase, "Hving 
soul:" 

"A general term to express all creatures endued with animal life, in 
any of its infinitely varied gradations." 

2. Are ''SouV and "Spirit'' Deathless? 

"Are not the soul and spirit said to be deathless?" ques- 
tions another. 

No. One writer says of the Scriptural use of the words 

"soul" and "spirit:" 

"The Hebrew and Greek words from which they are translated, occur 
in the Bible, as we have seen, seventeen hundred times. Surely, once at 
least in that long list we shall be told that the soul is immortal, if this is 
its high prerogative. Seventeen hundred times we inquire if the soul is 
once said to be immortal, or the spirit deathless. And the invariable 
and overwhelming response we meet ia,Not oncef' — "Here and Hereafter '* 
by U. Smith, p. 65. 

On the contrary, the Lord declares, "The soul that sin- 
neth, it shall die." Eze. 18:20. It means that the person 
who sins shall die; for the words "soul," "mind," "heart," 
and "spirit" are used to express life or the seat of the affections 
or of the intellect. One may commend his soul to God, or his 



284 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

spirit to God (really his life into the keeping of God), until 
the great day of the resurrection. The word "soul" is used 
of all animal life in New Testament usage, as well as in the 
Old; as, *^ Every living soul died in the sea." Rev. 16:3. 

3, The Thief on the Cross 

"Did not Christ promise the thief on the cross that he 
would be with Him that day in Paradise?" 

No; for Paradise is where God's throne is, and the tree of 
life, and the city of God, the capital of Christ's kingdom; 
and three days later Christ had not yet ascended to the Fa- 
ther. "Touch Me not," He said to Mary after His resurrec- 
tion; "for I am not yet ascended to My Father." John 20: 
17. The dying thief, therefore, was not with Him in Paradise 
three days before. 

Nor did the thief's question suggest such a thought. His 
faith grasped Christ's resurrection, the resurrection of EQs chil- 
dren, and the coming kingdom; and that, day on the cross, 
in the moment of the deepest humiliation of the Son of God, 
the repentant sinner cried, "Lord, remember me when Thou 
comest into Thy kingdom." And the Sa^dour rephed, "Verily 
I say unto thee today" — this day, when the world scoffs and 
the darkness presses upon Me, this day I say it — "shalt thou 
be with Me in Paradise." Luke 23: 42, 43. 

The punctuation that makes it read, "Today shalt thou 
be with Me in Paradise," is not a part of the sacred text, and 
puts the Saviour's promise in contradiction with the facts 
of the whole narrative and the teaching of Scripture. 

4. The Rich Man and Lazarus 

"Then there is the parable of the rich man and Lazarus," 
one says, "where Lazarus and Dives are talking, though dead 
— Lazarus in Abraham's bosom and the rich man in torment." 

But that is a parable; and no one can set the figures of a 
parable against the facts of positive Scripture. In parables, 
lessons are often taught by figurative language and imaginary 



Life Only in Christ 



285 



scenes which could never be real, though the lesson is empha- 
sized the more forcefully. 

In the parable of Judges 9, the trees are represented as 
holding a council and talking with one another. No one 
mistakes the lesson of the parable, or supposes that the trees 
actually talked. So in the parable of the rich man and Laza- 
rus, the lesson is taught that uprightness in this life, even 
though under deepest poverty, will be rewarded in the future 
life; while uncharitable selfishness will surely bring one to 
ruin and destruction. 

In the face of the Bible teaching, no one can turn this 
parable into actual narrative, representing that the saved 
in glory are now looking over the battlements of heaven and 
talking with the lost writhing before their eyes in agony amid 
the flames of unending torment. This is not the picture 
that the Scriptures give us of heaven, nor of the state of the 
dead, nor of the time and circumstances of the final rewards 
or punishments, 




From an inscription on an Egyptian monument, representing tlie weighing 
of a soul after death. 




SATAN'S FINAL ASSAULT UPON 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD 



They went up on the breadth of the 
earth, and compassed the camp of the 
saints about." Rev. 20 : 9. 



THE END OF THE WICKED 

So soon as ever Lucifer introduced sin into lieaven, it was 
certain, in the righteousness and omnipotence of God, that 
the day would come when sin would be blotted out of the 
perfect creation. Inspiration tells us that a time of final 
reckoning with sin was assured when Satan and a host of the 
angels with him lifted up the standard of mysterious rebellion 
against the law and harmony of heaven: 

''The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their 
own habitation. He hath reserved in everlasting chains under 
darkness unto the judgment of the great day.'' Jude 6. 

Punishment for sin is assured. By listening to Satan's 
temptation, man became involved in sin. Then a divine 
Saviour was provided, through whom every soul might es- 
cape from the kingdom of darkness, and find salvation and 
life. But it is inevitable that those who refuse the way of 

287 



288 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

life and reject the salvation of God, must finally be involved 
with Satan and sin in the day when sin is visited. 

By Adam's sin, all his posterity inherited a sinful, dying 
nature. "In Adam all die," the Scripture says. But not a 
soul in the last day can plead Adam's sin and the inheritance 
of a fallen nature as an excuse for his own transgressions. By 
Christ's gift of His life for us, the sinner, with all his weak- 
nesses, may become a partaker of the divine nature, and es- 
cape the power of the fleshly nature. By virtue of Christ's 
death for all, all recover from the death they die in Adam — 
the first death. All have a resurrection, the unjust as well as 
the just; and then every one gives account of himself to God, 
according to his own life and the use he has made of the light 
given him of God 

The Two Resurrections 

The Scriptures emphasize the fact that there are to be 
two resurrections. Paul, before Felix, declared his belief the 
same as that of all the prophets, — "that there shall be a resur- 
rection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." Acts 24: 15. 

Jesus declared it in these words: 

"The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the 
graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that 
have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that 
have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." John 
5:28, 29. 

The first resurrection is that of the just, at Christ's second 
coming. It is written of this: 

*' Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resur- 
rection: on such the second death hath no power, but they 
shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with 
Him a thousand years." Rev. 20: 6. 

After this, the righteous return with Christ to heaven, 
and remain there during the thousand years. The wicked 
living at the time of His coming are slain by the consuming 
glory of His presence; and they, with all the unjust of all the 



The End of the Wicked 289 

a^es, await in the grave the second resurrection, at the end 
of the thousand years. 

''The rest of the dead hved not again until the thousand 
years were finished." Rev. 20:5. 

At the end of the thousand years the city of God, with 
the saved, comes down out of heaven and settles upon the 
earth. 

Then the wicked are raised — the second resurrection. 
Under Satan's leadership they march up to attack the city 
of God. How naturally, we infer, may Satan persuade the 
lost that, after all, he was right when he declared to Adam, 
''Ye shall not surely die." Here are all his servants of all 
the ages — living. Why may they not be immortal, beyond 
the power of God to destroy? The old battle that began in 
heaven is on again. Satan, the archrebel, marshals his hosts 
of fallen angels and the myriads of fallen men, his legions 
stretching wide over the earth. 

"They went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed 
the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire 
came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them." 
Rev. 20:9. 

"This is the second death," the Scripture says. Verse 14. 
The great day has come when the sinner receives his wages 
— death — and sin is destroyed. 

The Punishment Everlasting 

"The wages of sin is death." And the second death is 
everlasting. There is no resurrection from this death. The 
Scriptures describe it in terms that affirm utter destruction, 
resulting in nonexistence. 

"Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from 
the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." 
2 Thess. 1:9. 

"Behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and 
all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: 
and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord 

19 



290 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.'^ 
Mai. 4: 1. 

''They shall be ashes/' the third verse of this chapter 
says. Every expression possible to language is employed to 
denote utter destruction, everlasting death. That means non- 
existence. Sin and sinners are blotted out. The prophet 
Obadiah, speaking of the visitation upon the heathen — the 
unbelieving — in 'Hhe day of the Lord," says: 

''They shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they 
shall be as though they had not been." Verse 16. 

This is the utter end of sin and all sinners, and of the au- 
thor of sin. Root and branch they are gone, "as though 
they had not been." All this is in the description of the last 
judgment, so fully set forth in ^he twentieth chapter of Reve- 
lation. 

"Death and hell [hades, the grave] were cast into the lake 
of fire. This is the second death." Rev. 20: 14. Death and 
the prison house of death are gone forever. Sin is wiped 
out of a perfect universe, and not even a trace will remain of 
the place of the fiery judgment. 

"Yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, 
thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be." 
Ps. 37: 10. 

The fires of the last day purify the earth, which comes 
forth in Eden-like beauty. In the whole creation of God 
there is no sin, no sinner, but all is harmonious again, as be- 
fore sin entered the universe. The prophet was given a view 
of this glorious consummation, and the triumph of the Son 
of God over sin. 

"Every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, 
and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that 
are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, 
and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto 
the Lamb forever and ever." Rev. 5: 13. 



The End of the Wicked 291 

Some Opinions Briefly Considered 

The doctrine of the immortaHty, the indestructibiUty, of 
the soul is responsible for the traditional view that the wicked 
are kept alive in unending misery through all eternity. How 
different this picture from that which Holy Scripture gives 
of the second death! Terrible and awful it is, but it results 
in the utter destruction of sin and sinners, leaving a clean 
universe. The doctrine of the immortaUty of the soul came 
in from pagan philosophy. Herodotus, ^'the father of his- 
tory," said: 

"The Egyptians . . . were also the first to broach the opinion, that 
the soul of man is immortal." — Book 2, par. 123. 

Evidently, they passed the doctrine on to the Greeks. Its 
origin was in the words of Satan in Eden, "Ye shall not surely 
die." The pagans had their nether world of spirits, or their 
transmigration of souls with its ceaseless round from body to 
body, and the Roman Catholics their purgatory with its puri- 
fying fires. From these sources and not from the Word of 
God, the traditional view has come into modern Christendom, 
representing the Lord as unable or unwilling to end sin, 
but keeping the sinner alive throughout eternity, to suffer 
torture that can bring no remedy. The Scripture teaching 
is far otherwise. However, there are certain Scripture phrases 
that emphasize the severity of the punishment of sin, which 
are often taken as supporting the doctrine of never-ending 
conscious torment. 

1. ^^ Forever and Ever.'^ — In Rev. 20: 10 it is said that 
the devil and his chief agencies ''shall be tormented day and 
night forever and ever." The phrase emphasizes the surety 
of their utter destruction. 

''Forever" means age-lasting, or life-lasting — so long as a 
thing exists by its nature. Thus in Ex. 21 : 6 the servant who 
loved his master and did not wish to leave his service was to 
have his ear pierced, "and he shall serve him forever," that 
is, without release as long as he lives. So the fiery judgment 



292 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

of that last day holds the wicked until Hfe ends; there is no 
release until life is consumed. 

2. ^^Everlasting Punishment^ — *' These shall go away into 
everlasting punishment." Matt. 25:46. It is everlasting 
punishment, not everlasting punishing. The punishment is 
everlasting death — ''who shall be punished with everlasting 
destruction." 2 Thess. 1:9. 

The truth of the utter destruction of smners is awful 
enough, but it commends itself to every thought of justice 
and mercy; for sin must be cleansed from a perfect universe. 
But the miscriptural view of everlasting conscious torment 
that never reaches the point of full punishment, is unthink- 
able. Yet it is urged as a doctrine, and contended for as 
vital to Christianity. 

The following description is taken from a book written 

for children, entitled "The Sight of Hell." It is printed in 

Dublin — for children. 

"Little cHld, if you go to hell, there will be a devil s.t your side to 
strike you. He will go on striking you every day, forever and ever, with- 
out ever stopping. The first stroke will make your body as bad as Job's, 
covered from head to foot with sores and ulcers. The second stroke wUl 
make your body twice as bad as the body of Job. . . . How then wUl 
your body be after the devil has been striking it every moment for a hun- 
dred million years without stopping?" — Quoted in the London Present 
Truth, April 30, 1914. 

What a rehef to turn from this to the Bible doctrme of 
the ''everlasting destruction" of the second death, terrible 
though it be! 

3. '^Everlasting Fire/^ ''Eternal Fire/' " Unquenchable Fire.'* 
— AU these expressions are used in describing the fiery judg- 
ment upon sin and sinners. The effect of the fire is ever- 
lasting and eternal, and by a common usage in language the 
adjective that describes the effect is appHed to the agent by 
which the effect is wrought. 

A specific example of everlasting fire in the punishment of 
evil is given in Scripture. Sodom and Gomorrah, those wicked 



The End of the Wicked 293 

"cities of the plain," were destroyed by a rain of fire from 
heaven. These cities, Inspiration says, ''are set forth for an 
example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Jude 7. The 
fire was everlasting, eternal, in its effects. The cities of the 
plain were everlastingly consumed. But the fire went out 
when the destruction was complete. Unquenchable fire is 
fire that cannot be quenched. It consumes utterly, until noth- 
ing is left; then it goes out of its own accord. 

4. " Where Their Worm Dieth Nof — Jesus warned of the 
certain destruction of sin and sinners in the fire of Gehenna; 
for this is the word translated "hell" in Mark 9:43. 

Hades, which is often translated "hell," is the grave, 
not the place of punishment. Gehenna, here used of the 
place of punishment, was the name of the valley where the 
refuse of Jerusalem was cast for burning. The map of Jeru- 
salem, in any ordinary Bible with maps, shows just outside 
the southern wall a gorge marked "Valley of Hinnom" (Ge- 
henna). It was here that the people, in the olden times, had 
sacrificed their children to Moloch. 

"In order to put an end to these abominations, Josiah polluted it with 
human bones and other corruptions. 2 Kings 23: 10, 13, 14." — Hastings's 
"Dictionary of the Bible." 

Here the fires consumed the refuse, and the fire and worms 
utterly destroyed the carcasses of beasts fiung into the place 
of destruction. It was regarded as a place accursed, and the 
smoldering fires became symbolical of the fires of the judgment. 

The use of this illustration, instead of arguing that the 
wicked are never destroyed but always live, conveys the op- 
posite idea. What went into the fires of Gehenna was utterly 
consumed, nothing being left. This was used by Christ as a 
figure illustrative of the utter destruction of the unrepentant 
sinner in the day of visitation. 

This must suffice. The positive teaching of Holy Scrip- 
ture is that sin and sinners will be blotted out of existence. 
There will be a clean universe again when the great contro- 
versy between Christ and Satan is ended. 




PETER DELIVERED 
FROM PRISON 



The angel of the Lord encampeth round about 
them that fear Him, and delivereth them," 
Ps. 34:7. 




DANIEL IN THE DEN OF 
LIONS 



My God hath sent His angel, and hath 
shut the lions' mouths, that they have 
not hurt me." Dan. 6:22. 



ANGELS: THEIR MINISTRY 



The one verse of Scripture which, perhaps, most com- 
prehensively sums up the ministry of the angels of God, is 
this: 

"Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister 
for them who shall be heirs of salvation? '^ Heb. 1: 14. 

This scripture shows us how truly all heaven is engaged 
in working for the salvation of this poor world, which has 
wandered from the fold of God. It will surely be a time of 
rejoicing among all the angelic host when Christ, the Good 
Shepherd, brings back this lost world, cleansed from sin, once 
more to the fold of God's perfect creation. 

The angels rejoiced when this world was created. The 
Lord said to Job: 

295 



296 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

''Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the 
earth? . . . when the morning stars sang together, and all 
the sons of God shouted for joy?" Job 38:4-7. 

Before ever this world was created, or man upon it, the 
angels had been created by the eternal Son, in whom all things 
consist. For angels are not redeemed men, neither will the 
redeemed in the world to come ever become angels. Angels 
are a different order of beings from men, a higher order in 
creation. We read: 

''What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? or the son 
of man, that Thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little 
lower than the angels; Thou crownedst him with glory and 
honor." Heb. 2:6, 7. 

In the life to come, by the wondrous power of Christ's 
transforming grace, redeemed men are to be made equal to 
the angels, as Christ stated: 

"Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto 
the angels; and are the children of God, being the children 
of the resurrection." Luke 20:36. 

This lifting of sinful man to an equality with the angels, 
at least in the possession of life and immortality, is an illus- 
tration of the gospel principle, "Where sin abounded, grace 
did much more abound." Rom. 5:20. But the declara- 
tion of equality with angels is a denial of identity with angels. 
Angels existed before man, and redeemed man will still be 
man, distinct from the angelic order, though the associate 
of angels in the service of God. 

Attendants at the Throne of God 

When the prophet Isaiah was given a view of the heavenly 
temple, he saw different orders of angels attending the throne 
of God: 

" I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted 
up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the sera- 
phim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, 
and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 



Angels: Their Ministry 297 

And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is 
the Lord of hosts/' Isa. 6: 1-3. 

Ezekiel beheld them in glory, attending the moving throne 
of the Almighty. ''The living creatures ran and returned as 
the appearance of a flash of lightning." Eze. 1: 14. 

Daniel beheld the angelic host gathered in the most holy 
place of the temple above, as the time came for the opening 
of the work of the investigative judgment, the cleansing of 
the sanctuary. Seeing the throne of God set for this final 
work of Christ's ministry, the prophet says: 

'' Thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thou- 
sand times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment 
was set, and the books were opened." Dan. 7: 10. 

God's Messengers 

The word ''angel'' means messenger. To and fro these 
angelic messengers have gone in the service of their Creator. 
A view of their ever-watchful service is given in the words 
of the psalmist: 

"Bless the Lord, ye His angels, that excel in strength, 
that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of 
His word." Ps. 103:20. 

Bearers of Tidings 

They visited Abraham's tent with warning of Sodom's 
overthrow. Genesis 18. 

They visited Lot in the city, and urged him to get his 
family out. Genesis 19. 

As Jacob, in fear but repentance, was about to meet Esau, 
whom he had deceived, "the angels of God met him." Gen- 
esis 32. "This is God's host," he said, and he knew that the 
God of Abraham and Isaac, and his God, also, had not for- 
saken him. 

At a discouraging time in the history of Israel, an angel 
appeared to Gideon, bringing the message, "The Lord is with 
thee," and calUng him to the work of dehvering his people. 
Judges 6. 




JACOB'S DREAM 
IN BETHEL 



Are they not all ministering spirits, sent 
forth to minister for them who shall be 
heirs of salvation?" Heb. 1:14. 



Angels: Their Ministry 299 

As Daniel's prayer reached heaven, even while he still 
prayed, the angel Gabriel ''being caused to fly swiftly,^' 
touched him* and said: 

"O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and 
understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the 
commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee/' 
Dan. 9:21-23. 

So close is the communication between heaven and earth. 

The gladdest tidings ever brought from heaven to earth 
since the promise of the Deliverer to Adam in Eden, were 
brought by angels to the shepherds of Bethlehem. First, one 
angel appeared, saying: 

"I bring you good tidings of great joy. . . . For unto you 
is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ 
the Lord." 

Such tidings to earth could never be the mission of one 
lone angel, when all heaven longed to cry the news to a lost 
world. 

"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of 
the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God 
in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." 
Luke 2: 13, 14. 

Unseen in Halls of Government 

One incident related in the book of Daniel draws aside the 
curtain, and .shows how angels doubtless often have worked 
unseen in kingly courts or halls of legislation. Daniel had 
prayed for three weeks for light in certain matters that the 
angel Gabriel had begun to unfold to him. When at last 
the angel came, overpowering the prophet with the glory of 
his presence, it was with a statement, first, of the reason for 
the delay in responding to his prayer. The angel said: 

"From the first day that thou didst set thine heart to 
understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words 
were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince 
of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: 



300 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; 
and I remained there with the kings of Persia. Now I am 
come to make thee miderstand what shall befall thy people 
in the latter days." Dan. 10: 12-14. 

Messengers of Deliverance 

The story of dehverance wrought by angels is too long to 
tell. One need only think of the angels' taking slow-moving 
Lot by the arms and setting him out of Sodom (Genesis 19); 
of the angel finding Elijah under a bush in the desert, and 
first baking a cake for the hungry man before speaking the 
word to his discouraged heart (1 Kings 19) ; of EHsha praying 
that the young man's eyes might be opened to see that there 
were more angels with them round about than all the Syrians 
encamped against them: 

''The Lord opened the eyes of the yoimg man; and he 
saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots 
of fire round about Elisha=" 2 Kings 6: 17. 

An angel shut the mouths of the Hons when Daniel was 
cast into their den. Daniel 6. An angel smote off Peter's 
irons in the prison at Jerusalem, opened the doors, and led him 
forth. Acts 12. Amid the angry waves sweeping over the 
foundering ship in the Adriatic, Paul the apostle bade the 
despairing crew be of good courage, ''for there stood by me 
this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, 
saying, Fear not." Acts 27:23, 24. 

All through the ages, the angels of God have been stand- 
ing by. Daniel, and Peter, and Paul are dead; but the angels 
still five. "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to 
minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? " Heb. 1 : 14. 

Guardian Angels 

That means that every child of God is under the guard- 
ianship of the angels. "The angel of the Lord encampeth 
round about them that fear Him, and dehvereth them." 
Ps. 34:7. 



Angels: Their Ministry 301 

Thank God, we are never left alone. Every child of God 
has a guardian angel commissioned by the loving Father to 
watch over him. Christ said: 

"Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; 
for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always be- 
hold the face of My Father which is in heaven.'' Matt. 18: 10. 

This does not mean that trials never will come, or troubles. 
In the midst of the trial, the angel of the Lord will stand by 
to strengthen and to bring help from the God of all comfort. 
It was in the midst of the fiery furnace that the "form of 
the Fourth" appeared, walking with the three Hebrew chil- 
dren — Jesus Himself treading the fiery way with them. And 
when Jesus, in the days of His flesh, was sinking under the 
crushing burden in Gethsemane, "there appeared an angel 
unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him.'' Luke 22:43. 

Our Saviour, who knows the comforting power of angel 
ministry, is the Captain of the heavenly host, and has com- 
missioned them all as ministering spirits to the heirs of salva- 
tion. 

When He comes in glory for His people, Christ will have 
"all the holy angels with Him." As the voice of Jesus 
awakens His sleeping saints and they rise immortal from the 
opened graves, "He shall send His angels, . . . and they 
shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one 
end of heaven to the other." Matt. 24:31. 

The angels who have watched over the heirs of salvation 
through all the ages, know where they are, and they know 
how to gather them, with their loved ones, to meet the Lord. 

The angels who rejoiced when the Lord laid the founda- 
tions of the earth, who mourned when man fell, who have 
all along been working with Christ, their leader, to rescue 
the lost, will yet rejoice when the Lord brings home His own. 
What a day will that be in heaven! 




MODERN INVENTIONS FUL- 
FILLING PROPHECY 



'Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge 
shall be increased." Dan. 12:4. 









1 


^ 


:^j^pj 


la 


^&^«..- 






M 


It 


WjH 


llfc?""~^^"*' 








w^mi!^ 


'^m tM 


mk 


ywmmm 


,^S|- 


'%' 


i 


•1 


1 


1 


.., -L..^^i»H 


«s^^ 


^^^^& 


1^^^^^'"^'^""' 


-iiSsffi^ss^rlXLJ?/ 




^= • ■ 




l^^^l 


"■ \^^B 


|. 


■<^^ 


:^mtp^lM 


/ 




H^^^v 






2 


^^ 


o 


^■'-^^^^>^^^^^^'^_i^s20^'StL i 


';,) 


l^^fll^ 




!! Yi^y^W- if- 


;:'|fSB- j-v""""' 


~"^;--" 




Bpl^S|r^^|H^H^H 


■^'i 




'-^ ^.%^v, „^ 


;,^:3; iil^llfesiji 




:'i 


l^?f!^ 





CAREY IN INDIA TRANSLATING 
THE BIBLE 



'So mightily grew the word of God 
and prevailed." Acts 19:20. 



THE TIME OF THE END 

"Thou, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, 
even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and 
knowledge shall be increased." Dan. 12:4. 

Thus the words of the angel, spoken nearly twenty-five 
hundred years ago, announced the opening of a new era of 
enlightenment when the latter days should come. 

The Time 

At the end of the long period of predicted tribulation of 
the church — the twelve hundred and sixty years of Daniel's 
prophecy — the world entered upon this era of "the time of 
the end." 

"They shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, 
and by spoil, many days. . . . And some of them of under- 
standing shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make 
them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for 
a time appointed." Dan. 11:33-35. 

303 



304 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

In practically every outline of prophecy touching this 
time, the events of the last days are represented as following 
the end of the prophetic period of tribulation. Christ's proph- 
ecy of Matthew 24 so declares. Our Saviour showed that 
this period of tribulation would be shortened, ''for the elect's 
sake," and that 'immediately after the tribulation of those 
days" the signs of the end would begin to appear. 

Thus, while the full period of the twelve hundred and 
sixty years ended amid the scenes of the French Revolution, 
which gave the papal power a deadly wound in the last decade 
of the eighteenth century, the shortening of the days of tribu- 
lation had begun even earlier to spread increasing knowledge 
and enlightenment over the earth. 

The Prophecy Unsealed 

The angel's words to Daniel were, 

"Shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time 
of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be 
increased." Dan. 12:4. 

''The words are closed up and sealed till the time of the 
end." Verse 9. 

This means that as the time of the end came, men would 
be impelled to search diligently for light in the prophetic word. 
Events taking place in fulfilment of the prophecy would be 
recognized, and with the coming of the time there would come 
the opening up, or unsealing, of the prophetic scriptures, with 
their message for men in the last days. 

As the time drew near, Bible students were led more and 

more to search the word of prophecy. Sir Isaac Newton, 

called "the greatest of philosophers," wrote of prophetic 

study: 

"The giving ear to the prophets is a fundamental character of the 
true church. For God has so ordered the prophecies, that in the latter 
days 'the wise may understand, but the wicked shall do wickedly, and 
none of the wicked shall understand.' Dan. 12:9, 10." — "Observations 
on the Prophecies of Daniel" {London, 1733), part 1, chap. 1, 



The Time of the End 305 

Again, this man who had delved so deeply into the laws of 
nature, but who bowed his heart in childlike faith to listen 
to the voice of Inspiration, declared his hope that the time of 
the end was near at hand in his day (he died in 1727). Of 
this prophecy of the unsealing of the book he wrote: 

"'Tis therefore a part of this prophecy, that it should not be under- 
stood before the last age of the world ; and therefore it makes for the credit 
of the prophecy that it is not yet understood. But if the last age, the age 
of opening these things, be now approaching, as by the great successes of 
late interpreters it seems to be, we have more encouragement than ever 
to look into these things. If the general preaching of the gospel be ap- 
proaching, it is to us and to our posterity that those words mainly belong: 
In the time of the end the wise shall understand, but none of the wicked 
shall understand. . . . 'Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear 
the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written 
therein.'" — "Observations on the Apocalypse" {London, 1733), chap. 1. 

True to the word of the angel, the events of the ending 
of the twelve hundred and sixty years of papal supremacy, 
amid the scenes of the French Revolution, drew the attention 
of Bible students everywhere. It was seen that prophecy was 
being fulfilled before men's eyes. It gave great impetus to 
the study of the prophetic scriptures. The great historic 
prophecies began to be opened up — unsealed — to the under- 
standing. An English historian of that period, John Adolphus, 
though writing a secular history, remarks upon this awaken- 
ing interest in prophetic study: 

"The downfall of the papal government [in 1798], by whatever means 
effected, excited perhaps less sympathy than that of any other in Europe: 
the errors, the oppressions, the tyranny of Rome over the whole Christian 
world, were remembered with bitterness; many rejoiced, through reUgious 
antipathy, in the overthrow of a church which they considered as idol- 
atrous, though attended with the immediate triumph of infidelity; and 
many saw in these events the accomplishment of prophecies, and the 
exhibition of signs promised in the most mystical parts of the Holy Scrip- 
tures. "—" f/is^or?/ of France from 1790 to 1802" {London, 1803), 
VoL II, p. 379. 

From those times of fulfilling prophecy, there arose a 
distinct movement, reviving the teaching of the doctrine of 



306 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

Christ's second coming, and directly preparing the way for 
the advent movement that was to come with the days of 1844, 
when yet fuller Hght was to break forth from the unsealed 
prophecies of the book of Daniel. Of the angel that symbol- 
izes the special gospel work for these last days, it is written, 
"He had in his hand a little book open." Rev. 10:2. The 
''time of the end" came, and with it has come the opening of 
the sealed book. The "sure word of prophecy" speaks its 
message full and clear to the ears of all mankind today. 

Increase of Knowledge 

"Many shall run to and fro," the prophecy said, "and 
knowledge shall be increased." It is knowledge of the proph- 
ecy and of the things of God that is primarily the topic; but 
the era that we are discussing has been one of general enlighten- 
ment and extension of knowledge.* "The entrance of Thy 
words giveth light," says the psalmist: and when the Reforma- 
tion of the sixteenth century broke the bands of age-long super- 
stition and error, and set free the Word of God, the way was 
preparing for the coming of this wonderful era of the diffusion 
of general knowledge. 

The era of reform movement was an era of world explora- 
tion and discovery. Diaz had rounded the south African 
cape, and Columbus had given to future generations the New 
World. The result was voyage after voyage of discovery, 
and then awakening, colonization, and expansion. 

The famous and learned Francis Bacoji, who died in 1626, 
felt in his day that the time spoken of by Daniel's prophecy 
was drawing near. He wrote: 

* It is not designed to give the reader the idea that this running " to and fro " 
refers wholly to turning to and fro through the pages of a book. The times in 
which we live have been characterized by a great increase in Bible study, and 
consequently in knowledge of the Scriptures ; but it is equally true that this has 
been due in large measure to the fact that there are no longer any " hermit " 
kingdoms. Travel, a real physical running " to and fro " through the earth, has 
contributed mightily to the modern increase of knowledge, and in no other field 
of investigation has this been more true than in the study of the Bible. By 
increased facilities for travel, all nations have been brought close together phys- 
ically. Different races and nationalities have become acquainted, missionary zeal 
has been quickened, and peoples formerly beyond the reach of missionary opera- 
tions have become easily accessible. In this sense, as well as by private searching 
of the Scriptures, knowledge has increased. 



The Time of the End 307 

"Nor should the prophecy of Daniel be forgotten, touching the last 
ages of the world : ' Many shall go to and fro, and knowledge shall be in- 
creased;' clearly intimating that the thorough passage of the world (which 
now by so many distant voyages seems to be accompHshed, or in course 
of accomplishment), and the advancement of the sciences, are destined 
by fate, that is, by divine Providence, to meet in the same age." — "Novum 
Organum," book 1, xciii. {Bacon's Works, Spedding and Ellis, Vol. IV, 
p. 92.) 

When the time indicated in the prophecy fully came, 
with the last decade of the eighteenth century, there was 
witnessed the upspringing of movements that have wrought 
mightily for the enlightenment and evangelization of the 
world. As the events of the French Revolution announced 
the closing of the long era of papal supremacy, so also another 
series of events at the same time announced the opening of the 
era of increasing knowledge. Speaking of these developments, 
Lorimer, a Scottish writer, said: 

"At the very time when Satan is hoping for, and the timid are fear- 
ing, an utter overturn of true rehgion, there is a revival, and the gospel 
expands its wings and prepares for a new flight. It is worthy of remem- 
brance that the year 1792, the very year of the French Revolution, was 
also the year when the Baptist Missionary Society was formed, a society 
which was followed during the succeeding, and they the worst, years of 
the Revolution, with new societies of unwonted energy and union, all 
aiming, and aiming successfully, at the propagation of the gospel of Christ, 
both at home and abroad. What withering contempt did the great Head 
of the church thus pour upon the schemes of infidels! And how did He 
arouse the careless and instruct His own people, by alarming providences, 
at a season when they greatly needed such a stimulus." — "Historical 
Sketches of the Protestant Church in France," p. 522. 

Another writer, Dr. D. L. Leonard, historian of the cen- 
tury of missions, says: 

"The closing years of the eighteenth century constitute in the history 
of Protestant missions an epoch indeed, since they witnessed nothing less 
than a revolution, a renaissance, an effectual and manifold ending of the 
old, a substantial inauguration of the new. It was then that for the first 
time since the apostolic period, occurred an outburst of general missionary 
zeal and activity. Beginning in Great Britain, it soon spread to the 
Continent and across the Atlantic. It was no mere push of fervor, but a 



308 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

mighty tide set in, which from that day to this has been steadily rising 
and spreading." — "A Hundred Years of Missions/' p. 69. 

The time of the prophecy had come, and the hand of provi- 
dence was bringing into being agencies that have spread 
hght and knowledge over all lands. 

"Look where the missionary's feet have trod — 
Flowers in the desert bloom; and fields, for God, 
Are white to harvest. Skeptics may ignore; 
Yet on the conquering Word, from shore to shore, 
Like flaming chariot, roUs. Ask ocean isles. 
And plains of Ind, where ceaseless summer smiles; 
Speak to far frozen wastes, where winter's blight 
Remains; — they teU the love, attest the might 
Of Him whose messengers across the wave 
To them salvation bore, hope, freedom gave." 

— Horace D, Woolley. 

The organization of foreign missionary enterprise was 
quickly accompanied by the establishment of Bible societies 
for a systematic work of translating and world-wide distribu- 
tion of the Scriptures. In 1804 the British and Foreign Bible 
Society was organized. Students of the prophetic word felt 
at the time that these agencies were coming in fulfilment of 
the prophecy. One writer of those times said: 

"The stupendous endeavors of one gigantic community to convey the 
Scriptures in every language to every part of the globe may weU deserve 
to be considered as an eminent sign even of these eventful times. Unless 
I be much mistaken, such endeavors are preparatory to the final grand 
diffusion of Christianity, which is the theme of so many inspired prophets, 
and which cannot be very far distant in the present day." — G. S. Faber, 
D. D., "Dissertation on the Prophecies," Vol. II, p. Jfid {18Jf4)- 

Now the Word of God, in whole or in part, is speaking in 
more than five hundred languages, and it is estimated that 
these tongues, at least in their spoken form, can make the 
divine message comprehensible to ninety-five per cent of the 
inhabitants of the earth. 

The work of modern missions, that had its birth as the 
time of the end came, is one of the great world factors today. 



The Time of the End 309 

Nearly thirty million dollars a year are given for Protestant 
missions, and a force of more than twenty thousand foreign 
missionaries is in the field, not coimting the many thousands 
of native missionaries and helpers. Truly the time of the end 
is proving to be an era of increasing light and knowledge. 

The Opening of All Lands 

As the time came for knowledge to be increased, it was 
necessary that all lands should be open to receive the enlighten- 
ing agencies. Thus, as the time of the end came, we see dis- 
tinctly the hand of Providence swinging open the doors into 
all countries. It has been an era of world survey and develop- 
ment. Particularly is this true of the last sixty or seventy 
years. It was in 1844 that the time referred to in the proph- 
ecy came for the special advent movement, bearing the judg- 
ment-hour message to the world. The range of the move- 
ment is thus described in the prophecy: 

"I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having 
the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the 
earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and 
people." Rev. 14: 6. 

This was a declaration that as the time came for the clos- 
ing gospel work to be done, the doors of access to every nation 
and tongue and people would be thrown open. In 1844, or 
but a few years before, much of the world was closed to mis- 
sionary endeavor; but as the prophecy indicates, the years 
following have witnessed the swift and systematic opening 
of all lands to the gospel message. 

It was in 1842 that five treaty ports in China were opened 
to commerce and to missions, — advance steps in the opening 
of all China to the gospel. In 1844 Turkey was prevailed 
upon to recognize the right of Moslems to become Christians, 
reversing all Moslem tradition. In 1844 Allen Gardiner 
established the South American Mission. In 1845 Living- 
stone's determination was formed to open up the African in- 
terior. 



310 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



Dr. A. T. Pierson, speaking of the wonderful way in which 

Providence opened the doors of access in those times, wrote 

as follows: 

"Most countries shut out Christian missions by organized opposition, 
so that to attempt to bear the good tidings was simply to dare death for 
Christ's sake; the only welcome awaiting God's messengers was that of 
cannibal ovens, merciless prisons, or martyr graves. But, as the little 
band advanced, on every hand the walls of Jericho fell, and the iron gates 
opened of their own accord. India, Siam, Burma, China, Japan, Turkey, 




INTO THE HEART OF 
AFRICA 



The Victoria Falls railroad bridge 
over the Zambezi. 



Africa, Mexico, South America, the Papal States, and Korea were suc- 
cessively and successfully entered. Within five years, from 1853 to 1858, 
new f acihties were given to the entrance and occupation of seven different 
countries, together embracing half the world's population." — "Modern 
Mission Century," p. 25. 

God's providence has laid under tribute every force and 
every resource for the opening of all lands — rc^ssionary en- 
deavor, love of adventure, commercial enterprise, and scien- 
tific interest. Railways have been built through regions that 
were undiscovered seventy years ago, and among the passen- 
gers travehng now over the iron trail are men and women of 
tribes unknown fifty years ago. But the gospel message was 



The Time of the End 311 

to go to every tribe and tongue before the end; and wonder- 
fully Providence has been opening the doors throughout all 
this "time of the end," and particularly in our generation. 

Material Agencies for the Work 

The prophecy represents not only a world-wide work, but 
a quick work in proclaiming the gospel message in the last 
days. The movement is symbolized in the Revelation by an 
angel flying in the midst of heaven, from land to land. And 
as to the closing work, when the end is near at hand, the 
Scripture says: 

''He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: 
because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth." 
Rom. 9:28. 

''Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith 
the Lord of hosts." This is the hope for a quickly finished 
work in all the earth in our time. Yet the Lord lays hold 
of material things for service; and wonderfully the hand of 
Providence has wrought in bringing into existence material 
agencies for a quick work in carrying the gospel to the world 
— such agencies as no generation before ours ever had. 

Consider the marvelous facilities for world-travel. They 
are the product of this time of the end. "Many shall run 
to and fro," said the prophecy. Some interpreters have re- 
stricted the Hebrew phrase to a "searching" to and fro for 
knowledge. Even this would include a literal running to and 
fro; for the light of increasing knowledge was to be diffused 
over all the earth. But the best authority on the Hebrew 
declares for the plain meaning of our English translation: 
"Many shall run to and fro." In two recent works. Dr. 
C. H. H. Wright, the English scholar, says of this text: 

"The natural meaning must be upheld, i. e., wandering to and fro." 
— "Critical Commentary on Daniel,'^ p. 209, 

"Why should not that expression be used in the sense in which it 
is employed in Jeremiah 5:1, namely, of rapid movement hither and 
thither?" — "Daniel and His Prophecies," p. 321. 



312 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

At the time when the first foreign missionary movement 
was being launched in America, Robert Fulton's steamship, 
the ''Clermont," was making its first trip on the Hudson. 



! « • "^ 



yy I I I 






HIEROGLYPHICS The "Ox Song" of the Egyptian threshing-floor. 

In 1838 the first ships to cross the Atlantic under steam power 
alone — the ''Sirius" and the "Great Western" — came into 
New York from Liverpool, a few hours apart, forerunners of 



I iirir <=- ail 5f^r ►+ ►? -^t \h ^1 r» <t-;^ * ^t 5:; -t<t* <:t a ^^ -sr :»iT ■ 



CUNEIFORM WRITING An account of the capture of Babylon, 

B. C. 538. From the cylinder of Cyrus. 

the fleets that furrow all the seas today, making quick path- 
ways for the gospel messengers to all lands. Verily, they are 
a gift of God's providence to this generation, when all the 
world is to hear the gospel message. 

"He hath made the deep as dry, 
He hath smote for us a pathway to the ends of aU the earth." 



The Time of the End 



313 



In 1825 Stephenson built his first railway passenger loco- 
motive, which may still be seen in the Darlington railway 
station, in England. It was the beginning of the great revo- 
lution in land travel. The late Prof. Alfred Russel Wallace, 
scientist, wrote: 

"From the earliest historic and even prehistoric times till the con- 
struction of our great railways in the second quarter of the present century 
[the nineteenth], there had been absolutely no change in the methods of 
human locomotion." — "The Wonderful Century," p. 7. 




MANUSCRIPT WRITING 



The process by which the books of the great 
library of Alexandria, Egypt, were made. 



For nearly six thousand years men had traveled in the 
old way. Why should these revolutionary changes in travel 
by sea and land come abruptly just at this time? — Because 
the time foretold in the prophec3^ was at hand, when the last 
gospel message was to be carried quickly to all the world — 
'*to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.'' 
We see the hand of the living God opening the doors into all 
lands, and His wonderful providence laying at the feet of 
this generation agencies for quickly covering the whole earth. 



314 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



^m lamfiptuagua uuccprmmi 
tpggfetftfrioplflrrrri^ggaanolnr 

tdtm tnSmta.jnai^ ml it0im!km^ 
]|iiti9:ttnimmtiObuam^.iCrtamt m 



GUTENBERG'S FIRST 
TYPES 



Reproduced from the first edition of ttie famous 
forty-two-line Latin Bible, printed by Gutenberg. 



Later came the electric telegraph, for the quick trans- 
mission of news. It was in 1837 that Cooke and Wheatstone 
in England, and Morse in the United States, made their ap- 
phcation for patents on the electric telegraph. It was in 1844 
that the first long-distance system was successfully demon- 
strated — when the historic message was sent from Baltimore 
to Washington, ^'What hath God wrought! '* Now news of 
events fulfilling prophecy, and news of progress and condi- 
tions in all lands, are daily spread before the world by this 
agency of our wonderful time. 




THE GUTENBERG 
PRINTING PRESS 



On which was produced the first 
printed Bible, in 1456 A. D. 



The Time of the End 



315 




THE FRANKLIN PRESS Operated by two men, it has a maximum 

speed of 250 impressions per hour. 

As the closing events take place, the Lord has in His 
providence so ordered it that no one need be ignorant of the 
signs of the times fulfilUng before the eyes of men. 

"Speak the word and think the thought, 
Quick 'tis as with lightning caught — 
Over, under, lands or seas 
To the far antipodes," 

Here is an incident illustrating the way in which the 
electric telegraph may multiply and spread abroad the wit- 



•iiliniiaiKiiiiiiiiiMDiiuiuiiiiiaiimiiiwiciiiiiiiniiianiiHiiiJiioiiiiiiiinirDiiiiiiiiiiiiaiiiiiriiiniD iiiiiiiciifiijiiriijiniiiiiiriiiriDiiiiiiiriuiajrmiiiniiaJumiriiiiDiiriuiiniiaiiiiiiiiiiiiDiiiiiiinHiainiiiiiriuatiiiiiiiriiiDiiiiiinii,[]miiniini[* 



I The Mighty Press 

□ 

I "When old Gutenberg, inventor 

I Of the printing press, and mentor 

I Of the clumsy-fingered typos 

f In a sleepy German town, 

I Used to spread the sheets of vellum 

I On the form, and plainly tell them 

I That the art was then perfected, 

I As he pressed the platen down, 

j He had not the faintest notion 

I Of the rhythmical commotion, 

I Of the brabble and the clamor 

I And the unremitting; roar 

j Of the mighty triple decker, 

I While the steel rods flicker, 

I And the papers, ready folded, 

3 

Fall in thousands to the floor." 



•inmiiiiuiDiniiijiiMiaiimiiiniiuninmiiriuinimniiianiifininiaiiiliniinammimnommniiKiiinnuiiunininiiiiiiD^ riiiciiiiiiiiiiiiic-iiniiiiH(iuiiuiiiiiiiini>iiiiiiiiii[jimnmmnii>iiiiiniinniiinihiiniinniniiiaiiuiiiiimuiimmmK^ 



318 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

ness borne to the truth of God in some obscure corner of 
the earth: 

Some years ago a young man in Europe — a Seventh-day 
Adventist — was giving answer for his faith. His conscience 
would not allow him to do ordinary labor on God's holy Sab- 
bath. He had declared to the court that the oath of loyalty 
which had been required of him forbade his breaking the 
Sabbath. ^'How is that?" asked the judge. The young 
man rephed: 

"I was sworn in. with a Christian oath, and therefore cannot be under 
an obligation to violate the commandments of God and work on the Sab- 
bath. One must regard God as the highest authority, and obey Him 
in the first place." 

This witness was borne in a little courtroom, before a 
small group of men; but the press dispatches took it up, and 
the description of the scene and report of the words spoken 
were carried by electric telegraph to the press of at least four 
continents, and milKons read the testimony of the young 
man to the faith that was in him. 

In the days to come, with great events taking place and 
solemn issues calHng upon men to make decision for God and 
His truth, how quickly, in some great crisis, all the world 
may be warned, and the last individual decisions be made 
for eternity! 

Modern Printing 

The invention of the printer's art had come just in time 
to give wings to Reformation truth. Luther said of it: 

"Printing is the latest and greatest gift by which God enables us to 
advance the things of the gospel. It is the last bright flame, manifesting 
itself just previous to the extinction of the world. Thanks be to God, 
it came before the last day came." — Michelet's "Life of Luther" p. 291. 

WMle improvements in the art were made through the 
centuries, it was a slow process, even up to the opening of 
our generation. During our day, however, inventions have 
revolutionized the printing process. 



The Time of the End 319 

In this, as in other things, the methods have been speeded 
up to meet the necessities of this time of rapid accomplish- 
ment. The printing press is one of the chief of the marvelous 
enlightening agencies of this time of the end. By it the 
printed pages of truth are set falling over the earth ^'like 
the leaves of autumn." 

Time fails us to speak of all the wonderful material develop- 
ments of our day, when knowledge has been increased, and 
when men are not only searching to and fro, but Hterally run- 
ning to and fro. The whole earth is brought within the range 
of human knowledge, and the light of saving truth is stream- 
ing out toward every dark place where the children of men 
dwell. 

Nearly twenty-five himdred years ago it was written upon 
the prophetic page, 

"Shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time 
of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall 
be increased." 

There the word stood on the scroll of prophecy through 
more than two millenniums. Then, as the time of the end 
came, lo, the book of prophecy was unsealed, and the new era 
of increasing knowledge began to spread in wondrous blessing 
over the earth. 

So surely, also, the prophecies of the last events will be 
accomplished. In the occurrences taking place before our 
eyes, we see that God is indeed finishing His work in the 
earth, and cutting it short in righteousness. 




COPYRIGHT BY UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD, N. Y. 



THE MOSQUE OF ST. 
IN CONSTANTINOPLE 



SOPHIA 



The most famous of all Moham- 
medan temples. 



THE EASTERN QUESTION 

MODERN HISTORY IN THE LIGHT OF ANCIENT PROPHECY 

Not alone of the history of ancient nations does the ''sure 
word of prophecy" bear witness. Pohtical events of our own 
and coming days are described. 

The nations of the latter day are pictured as preparing 
war, gathering their forces for the great Armageddon, the 
battle of the day of God. 

As a signal of the last great struggle, the fall, or ''drying 
up," of the power ruling the territory watered by the river 
Euphrates is foretold. Rev. 16: 12. The Euphrates in all 
modern history has been suggestive of the dominions of the 
Turkish or Ottoman Empire. And Armageddon, designated 
as the meeting place of armies in the last clash of nations, is 
in Palestine, which, through all modern times, has been in 
possession of the Turkish power. 

The index finger of prophecy points, therefore, to this 
region of the eastern Mediterranean as the pivotal point in 
the closing history of nations; and with Turkey's fate is 
wrapped up the fate of all the nations of the world. 

21 321 



322 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

All this adds deepest and most solemn import to the study 
of what is known as the Eastern Question, a question that 
has been to the fore in international pohtics much of the time 
throughout this generation. Wars have been fought over it, 
cabinets have wrestled with it, and still it holds its place 
in the first rank of Hving issues of today. 

As every one knows, the Eastern Question involves the 
dominion or supremacy in the Near East. This region was 
a pivotal point in the struggles of the nations in ancient times 
— the meeting place of East and West. Maspero, historian 
of ancient empires, says of it: 

"Some countries seem destined from their origin to become the 
battle fields of the contending nations. . . . The nations around are 
eager for the possession of a country thus situated. . . . From remote 
antiquity Syria was in the condition just described. By its position it 
formed a kind of meeting place, where most of the miHtary nations of 
the ancient world were bound sooner or later to come violently into 
collision." — "Struggle of the Nations," chap. 1. 

It is not strange, therefore, that one of the great outlines 
of historic prophecy should deal with events centering around 
this pivotal region. The prophecy of Daniel 11 does so, 
outlining the course of history from ancient times to the 
final solution of the Eastern Question amid the scenes of 
the end. 

Rise and Fall of Ancient Empires 

The prophetic outline of Daniel 11 begins with Persia, 
in the third year of Cyrus, the conqueror of Babylon. (See 
Dan. 10: 1.) The angel of God appeared to Daniel, and in 
the longest and most detailed single prophecy in all the Bible, 
told the story of events coimected with this region of the 
Near East for the centuries to come, until the end. Putting 
the word of prophecy and the record of history side by side, 
we see how exactly history has fulfilled prophecy; and we may 
know certainly that the brief portion of the prophecy yet un- 
fulfilled will surely come to pass. 



The Eastern Question 323 

Persia 

Prophecy. — "Now will I show thee the truth. Behold, 
there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth 
shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength through 
his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia." 
Dan. 11:2 

History. — The three kings following Cyrus were (1) Cam- 
byses, (2) Smerdis, (3) Darius; the fourth, Xerxes, was "far 
richer than they all." He had the treasures of his father, Da- 
rius, who was called the "merchant" or "hoarder" by his 
own people, and Xerxes gathered stores of wealth in addition. 
When Xerxes was on his way to invade Grecia, a Lydian 
named Pythius entertained the whole Persian army with 
feasts, and offered to aid in bearing the expense of the cam- 
paign. Xerxes asked who this man of such wealth was. He 
was answered: 

"This is the man, O king! who gave thy father Darius the golden 
plane tree, and likewise the golden vine; and he is still the wealthiest 
man we know of in all the world, excepting thee." — Herodotus, book 7, 
par. 27. 

"Richer than they all," Xerxes, "through his riches," was 
able, as the prophecy had foretold, to "stir up all against the 
realm of Grecia." Forty-nine nations marched under his ban- 
ners to the attack. The Greek poet, ^schylus, who himself 
fought against the Persians, wrote of Xerxes' mighty host^ 

"And myriad-peopled Asia's king, a battle-eager lord, 
From utmost east to utmost west sped on his countless horde, 
In unnumbered squadrons marching, in fleets of keels untold, 
Knowing none dared disobey, 
For stern overseers were they 
Of the godlike king begotten of the ancient race of Gold." 

— " Per SOB," Way's translation. 

Xerxes boasted that he was leading "the whole race of 
mankind to the destruction of Greece." But his invasion 
ended in the total rout of his forces by land and by sea. It 
was an advertisement to the world that Persia's might was 



324 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

broken. The prophecy treats it so, and deals no further with 
Persian history. 

^schylus at the time celebrated the passing of Persia's 
prestige in the lines, — 

"With sacred awe 

The Persian law 
No more shall Asia's realms revere; 

To their lord's hdnd 

At his command, 
No more the exacted tribute bear. 



"Before the Ionian squadrons Persia flies, 
Or sinks engulfed beneath the main; 
Fallen! fallen! is her imperial power, 
And conquest on her banners waits no more." 

— "PerscB,'' Potter's translation. 

The next great world change was to be the rise of Grecia 
to dominion. So, although a number of kings followed 
Xerxes in Persia, the prophecy passes from his disastrous 
invasion directly to the coming of Grecia under its ^'mighty 
king," Alexander the Great. 

Grecia 

Prophecy. — ''A mighty king shall stand up, that shaJl 
rule -svith great dominion, and do according to his will. And 
when he shall stand up, his Idngdom shall be broken, and 
shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to 
his posterity." Dan. 11:3, 4. 

History. — Alexander the Great stood up and ruled with 
great dominion, over a kingdom stretching from India to 
Grecia, with kings yet farther west sending embassies to 
Babylon to make submission. But in the height of his power, 
as the prophecy suggests, he was suddenly cut down by death. 
All his posterity perished, and out of the struggles of his 
generals for supremacy came (301 b. c.) the division of 
the empire toward ''the four winds," as the prophecy had 
declared so long before. Rawlinson, the historian, says: 



The Eastern Question 325 

"A quadripartite division of Alexander's dominion was recognized: 
Macedonia [west], Egypt [south], Asia Minor [nortli], and Syria [stretcli- 
ing eastward beyond tlie Euphrates]." — "Sixth Monarchy," chap. 3. 

The Kings of the North and South 

Next, a rearrangement of tliese powers is noted; and it 
is this that gives us the key to the study of the closing portion 
of the long prophetic outline dealing with events of our own 
day. The narrative continues: 

Prophecy. — ''The king of the south shall be strong, and 
one of his princes . . . shall be strong above him; . . . his 
dominion shall be a great dominion." Verse 5. 

History. — The history testifies that the king of the south 
(Egypt, under Ptolemy) was strong; but one of the four 
princes was ''strong above him." Seleucus, of Syria and the 
east, pushed his dominion northward, subduing most of Asia 
IMinor, and extending his boundary into Thrace, on the Euro- 
pean side, beyond the Dardanelles. Henceforward, as Ma- 
haffy says, 

''there were three great kingdoms — Macedonia, Egypt, Syria — which 
lasted, each under its own dynasty, till Rome swallowed them up." — ■ 
"Alexander's Empire," p. 89. 

Thus Seleucus took the territory of the north, and the 
Syrian power became king of the north, its empire extending 
from Thrace, in Europe, through Asia Minor to Syria and the 
Euphrates. The seat of empire was removed from the east, 
and Antioch, in northern Syria, "once the third city of the 
world," became the famous capital. 

The prophecy next foretold in remarkable detail the con- 
tests between these two strong powers, the king of the north 
(Syria and Asia Minor) and the king ■ of the south (Egypt) . 
The conjflict raged back and forth till the coming of the Ro- 
mans. The Holy Land was the frequent meeting place of 
the contending armies. The Encyclopedia Britannica de- 
scribes it: 



326 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

** Palestine was as of old the battle field for the king of the north and 
the king of the south. . . . The history of these times is lost in its details." 
— Ninth edition, Vol. XV , art. '^Macedonian Empire,^' p. 144- 

We shall not follow the details of this contest as foretold 
in the prophecy, nor yet the outline of events after the com- 
ing of the Roman power ended the rivalry between Syria and 
Egypt. It is necessary only that we fix the events and geo- 
graphic terms of this early portion of the prophecy. Then 
we shall have the key to the closing portion, dealing with 
events of the last days, when the king of the north again 
appears. 

The Modern King of the North 

In the last verses of the chapter we find the king of the 
north a chief actor in this same region, *'at the time of the 
end." Verse 40. And we are told that when this power 
comes to its end, it is the signal that the great day of God is 
at hand. (See Dan. 12: 1.) 

It becomes a vital question, therefore, what power in these 
last days is the king of the north, whose end is the signal of 
the swift ending of the world. Inspiration gives the basis 
for the answer. The king of the north in the early portion of 
the prophecy was the power that ruled in Syria and Asia 
Minor, from the Euphrates to the shores of the Dardanelles. 
The king of the north, then, of the later portion of the proph- 
ecy, must be the power that has been ruling in this same 
region during the time of the end. 

What power has held dominion over this territory in 
modern times? — The Turkish or Ottoman Empire. At this 
time Turkey holds almost the identical dominion of the an- 
cient king of the north — from the Euphrates to the sea, and 
northward over Asia Minor and the shores of the Dardanelles. 

Then today Turkey is certainly the king of the north, 
according to the prophecy of Daniel 11. 

Of the later history of the king of the north and his end 
and the events following it, the prophecy says: 



The Eastern Question 



327 



''Tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble 
him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, 
and utterly to make away many. 

''And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between 
the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to 
his end, and none shall help him. 

''And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great 
Prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and 




COPYRIGHT BY UNDERWOOD a UNDERWOOD, N. Y. 

CITY OF CONSTANTINOPLE 



The capital of the Turkish government. 



there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there 
was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy 
people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written 
in the book.'' Dan. 11:44, 45; 12: 1. 

The opening verse of this scripture describes exactly the 
history of Turkey in modern times. Turkey's disquietude 
has come because of tidings out of the east and out of the 
north. In both these directions there has been a pushing 
back of the Turkish frontier, particularly in the north. Again 



328 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

and again, during this time of the end, Turkey has gone forth 
with fury to resist these encroachments and prevent the loss 
of territory. 

The prophecy indicates that in some of these struggles 
the king of the north will yet transfer his capital: 

*'He shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between 
the seas in the glorious holy mountain." 

Removal to Jerusalem 

This prophecy can mean nothing else than that the king 
of the north will eventually set up his headquarters in Jeru- 
salem; for Jerusalem is ''the holy mountain'' of the Scrip- 
tures. Zech. 8:3. 

It is a wise counsel that says, '' Tread Kghtly in the details 
of unfulfilled prophecy." Just how events are to turn, by 
what route or processes the steps are to be taken, it is use- 
less to conjecture. But there the prophecy stands. Every 
word of the early portion of the prophetic outhne has been 
fulfilled to the letter in the history of the ancient empires 
batthng century after century over this region. Every word 
spoken of the final scenes mU as certainly be fulfilled. 

In view of this prophecy, — that Jerusalem is yet to be 
made the headquarters of the king of the north, — it becomes 
highly significant that the Mohammedans regard Jerusalem 
as a sacred city. According to Mohammedan tradition, Jeru- 
salem is to play a leading part in the closing history of that 
people. Hughes, in his ''Dictionary of Islam," article "Jeru- 
salem," summarizes the teaching: 

"In the last daj^s there will be a general flight to Jerusalem." 

Speaking of Jerusalem, an old Arab commentator on the 

Koran, Mukaddasi (a. d. 985), said: 

"As to the excellence of the city. Why, is not this to be the place 
of marshaHng on the day of judgment, where the gathering together and 
the appointment will take place? Verily ISIakkah [Mecca] and Al Madina 
have their superiority by reason of the Ka'abah and the prophet, — the 
blessing of AUah be upon him and his family! — but, in truth, on the 




MODERN JERUSALEM 



He shall plant the tabernacles of his 
palace between the seas in the glorious 
holy mountain." Dan. 1 1: 45. 



330 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



day of judgment both cities will come to Jerusalem, and the excellencies 
of them all will then be united." — Le Strange, "Palestine under the Mos- 
lems," p. 83. 

Thus IMoslem doctrinal teaching and tradition both point 
out Jerusalem as the ralljTiig place of ]\Ioslems before the end. 
Again and again in recent years, as the pressure has threat- 




THE MOSQUE OF OMAR 



Situated in Jerusalem, on Mt. Moriah, 

the site of Solomon's Temple. 



ened the Turkish hold on Constantinople, the thoughts of 
Moslems have turned toward Jerusalem as a possible capital. 
A few years ago a Seventh-da^^ Adventist missionary in Con- 
stantinople wrote to his home board: 

"Within the past few months quite a companj^ of people from the 
Transcaucasus district have come to Ismid, — old Nicodemia, — bringing 
all they possess with them. Some of them possess considerable wealth. 
When asked if they were going to settle in Ismid, thej' repHed that they 
would settle nowhere permanently at present. They stated that they 
had come to be prepared to go with their leader when he left Constanti- 
nople to go to Jerusalem." 

Wherever the capital may first be set up following the 
forsaking of Constantinople, — and Turkish authorities, we are 



The Eastern Question 331 

told, have discussed a number of possible locations in Asia 

Minor, — there stands the ancient prophecy as to the eventual 

seat of the king of the north, 

''He shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the 

seas in the glorious holy mountain." 

Following that, what comes? The prophecy declares, 
"Yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him." 

What Comes When Turkey Falls 

The fury of his goings forth ''utterly to make away many," 
the moving of his capital from one place to another, avail 
nothing in the end. "He shall come to his end, and none 
shall help him." 

The suggestion of the prophecy is that this power has 

hitherto been helped to stand. Here again every suggestion 

of the prophetic language finds its response in history. 

Through these later years of the time of the end the Ottoman 

Empire has been helped to stand, by either one power or 

another, or by some combination of powers. The late Lord 

Salisbury, while premier of Britain, thus stated the reasons for 

this policy of helping Turkey: 

"Turkey is in that remarkable condition in which it has now stood for 
half a century, mainly because the great powers of the world have resolved 
that for the peace of Christendom it is necessary that the Ottoman Empire 
should stand. They came to that conclusion nearly half a century ago. 
I do not think they have altered it now. The danger, if the Ottoman 
Empire should fall, would not merely be the danger that would threaten 
the territories of which that empire consists; it would be the danger that 
the fire there lit should spread to other nations, and should mvolve all 
that is most powerful and civilized in Europe in a dangerous and calam- 
itous contest. That was the danger that was present to the minds of our 
fathers when they resolved to make the integrity and independence of 
the Ottoman Empire a matter of European treaty, and that is a danger 
which has not passed away." — Mansion House speech, Nov. 9, 1895. 

The veteran premier stated the fear of modern statesmen 
that Turkey's fall would involve all civilization in a calam- 
itous conflict. The prophecy pictures just such a catastrophe, 
in these words: 



332 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

*'He shall come to his end, and none shall help him. And 
at that time shall Michael stand up, the great Prince which 
standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a 
time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation 
even to that same time." 

What modern statesmen have seen impending and have 
sought to ward off, the ancient prophecy says will surely come 
to pass when the king of the north comes to his end, — a time 
of trouble for the nations such as never was. 

In the New Testament 

In the prophecy of Revelation 16, the last great clash of 
the nations is represented as following the fall of the power 
that rules the territory drained by the Euphrates. Describ- 
ing the last events in human history, under the pouring out 
of the vials of judgment upon the world, the prophet says: 

"The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river 
Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way 
of the kings of the east might be prepared." Rev. 16: 12. 

The water of the Euphrates represents the people or power 
ruling by it. When anciently the Assyrians dwelt by that 
river and were about to invade Israel, the prophet said, ''The 
Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong 
and many, even the king of Assyria." Isa. 8: 7. The waters 
of the Euphrates meant the Assyrian power. 

Just so in this prophecy, the river stands for the people. 
As the Nile stood for Egypt, and the Tiber for Rome, so in 
all modern times the Euphrates has stood for Turkey. The 
"drying up" of the Euphrates must mean the ending of the 
Turkish power. And in the verses immediately following, 
Revelation pictures the gathering of the nations of the whole 
world to Armageddon — "the battle of that great day of 
God Almighty." Following Turkey's end comes the final 
clash of nations. The earth quakes, the cities of the na- 
tions fall, and the last judgments of God come upon a war- 
ring world. 



The Eastern Question 333 

Here, as in Daniel 12, is pictured a time of trouble for 
the nations such as never was, and the end of the world, 
when the power ruling in Syria, by the Euphrates, comes to 
its end. 

The Approaching End 

For years statesmen and observers have discussed the ap- 
proaching dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Travelers 
in Turkey have reported that thoughtful Turkish people 
held the conviction that the crisis of their nation was near 
at hand. Years ago Mr. Charles MacFarlane wrote: 

"The Turks themselves seem generally to be convinced that their 
final hour is approaching. 'We are no longer Mussulmans, — the Mussul- 
man saber is broken, — the Osmanlis will be driven out of Europe by the 
gaiours, and driven through Asia to the regions from which they first 
sprang. It is Kismet! We cannot resist destiny!' I heard words to 
this effect from many Turks, as well in Asia as in Europe." — ''Kismet; 
or the Doom of Turkey" (London, 1853), v. 409. 

A later Turkish traveler, Mr. Wilfred Scawen Blunt, says: 

"Ancient prophecy and modern superstition alike point to the return 
of the Crescent into Asia as an event at hand, and to the doom of the 
Turks. ... A well-known prediction to this effect, which has for ages 
exercised its influence on the vulgar and even on the learned Moham- 
medan mind. . . . places the scene of the last struggle in northern Syria 
at Homs, on the Orontes, Islam is then finally to retire from the north, 
and the Turkish rule to cease. Such prophecies often work their own 
fulfilment."— "/^w^wre of Islam," p. 95. 

Thus native tradition and human forebodings have con- 
templated the break-up of the Turkish power, as the course 
of the years has witnessed the shrinkage of its territory and 
the ever-increasing difficulty of its position. 

Now and then there has been a renewal of Turkey's vigor 
and prestige; then again its situation has been rendered yet 
more precarious. It has been a buffer between the clashing 
interests of the great powers. Speaking of Turkey's difficult 
position in this respect, the London Fortnightly Review, May, 
1915, expressed a common view thus: 



334 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



"When once the nations of Europe set foot in Asia Minor, the pace of 
Turkey's further downfall will be set not so much by Turkey's strength 
or weakness as by the mutual jealousies of the occupying powers." 

The storm clouds hang ever low over the Near East; while 
above all the din of wars and rumors of wars, the voice of 
divine prophecy declares that when this power comes to its 
end, the closing events in human history will quickly follow. 




CONSTANTINOPLE THE KEY 
CITY OF THE WORLD 



The cfoss on which the peace of the 
world has been crucified. 



The solemn truth rings in our ears like a trumpet peal; 
the age-long Eastern Question is hastening on to its final so- 
lution, and its solution brings the end of the world. 

In the light of the ''sure word of prophecy" the develop- 
ments of our day in the East become more than matters of 
grave political concern to statesmen and observers of affairs 
generally; they are matters of deepest personal, eternal in- 
terest to every soul. In watching the trend of international 
affairs, we are watching the doing of the last things among 
the nations. 



The Eastern Question 335 

As these things are seen coming to pass exactly as the 
prophecy foretold, we recognize them as God's call to men in 
the last generation to turn to Him and prepare their hearts 
to meet the coming Lord. Let no one think to wait until 
he sees Turkey come to its end before making his peace with 
God. The end of this power, as described in Revelation 16, 
comes during the falling of the seven last plagues. And the 
last verse of the preceding chapter shows that Christ's minis- 
try for sinners in the heavenly temple has ended before 
the plagues begin to fall. Human probation will already have 
closed. The solemn decree will then have been issued in 
heaven : 

"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is 
filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him 
be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. 
And, behold, I come quickly." Rev. 22: 11, 12. 

"Now is the accepted time," calls the Spirit; "now is the 
day of salvation." 2 Cor. 6:2. We have not to make our- 
selves ready. ''If we confess our sins. He is faithful and just 
to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unright- 
eousness." 1 John 1:9. Our part is to believe and con- 
fess; His part is to forgive and cleanse and make us ready for 
the coming kingdom. 

The Sinner's Plea 

With broken heart and contrite sigh, 
A trembling sinner, Lord, I cry; 
Thy pardoning grace is rich and free: 
O God, be merciful to me! 

Nor alms, nor deeds that I have done, 
Can for a single sin atone; 
To Calvary alone I flee: 
O God, be merciful to me! 

And when, redeemed from sin and hell, 
With all the ransomed throng I dwell, 
My raptured song shall ever be, 
"God has been merciful to me!" 

— Cornelius Elven. 




THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON 
AND MT. MEGIDDO 



He gathered them together into a place 
called . . . Armageddon." Rev. 16: 16. 



ARMAGEDDON 

THE FINAL CLASH OF EARTHLY EMPIRES 

"We are living, we are dwelling, 

In a grand and awful time, 
In an age on ages telling, 

To be living is sublime. 
Hark! the waking up of nations, 

Gog and Magog to the fray; 
Hark! what soundeth? Is creation 

Groaning for her latter day?" 

The sure word of prophecy that foretold the rise and fall 
of ancient empires, and outlined the general course of world 
history through the ages, describes also the last great struggle 
of the nations. 

The proverb says, "Peace is the dream of the wise, but 
war is the history of man." And divine prophecy assures us 
that the history of this present world will end amid scenes 
of conflict. 

Many in our time have come to think that civilization must 
reach a better way of composing the rivalries of the nations. 
22 337 



338 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

The prophecy forewarns us otherwise. In fact, the pro- 
phetic word points to the talk of peace and safety amid 
preparations for war, as a distinct sign of the latter days. 

''In the last days," Isaiah says, ''many people shall go 
and say:" 

"They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their 
spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword 
against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Isa. 
2:2-4. 

This is what "many people" were to be saying. But the 
real conditions in the last days are described as exactly 
the opposite. The prophet Joel describes the real spirit of 
the world in these times: 

"Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles [the nations]: Pre- 
pare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war 
draw near; let them come up: beat your plowshares into 
swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, 
I am strong." Joel 3:9, 10. 

The context shows that the prophet is speaking of the 
last times, when "the day of the Lord is near." Verse 14. 

The Prophecy Fulfilling 

This is what we have seen in our time, as never before 
in the history of man, — the product of the plowshare and the 
pruning hook being turned into instruments of war. 

About twenty-five years ago the late Marquis of Salis- 
bury, speaking as a man grown gray in the service of the 
state, asked a London audience the question, "What is the 
great change that marks this time as different from the times 
when most of us were young men?" The aged statesman 
answered his own question, saying that it was the arming of 
the nations, the swift race upon which the powers had then 
recently entered, to increase their naval and military arma- 
ments. It is a sign of our times, answering to the prophetic 
forecast. 



Armageddon 339 

Throughout the present generation the thoughtful have 
watched with grave forebodings the preparations of the na- 
tions for war. Queen Alexandra, of Britain, once said of it: 

"I was educated in the school of a king who was, before all things, 
just; and I have tried, like him, always to preach love and charity = I have 
always mistrusted warlike preparations, of which nations seem never to 
tire. Some day this accumulated material of soldiers and guns will 
burst into flames in a frightful war that wiU throw humanity iuto mourn- 
ing on earth and grieve our universal Father in heaven." 

As the race of armaments went forward on a scale never 

before thought of, statesmen and writers began to make use 

of the word ''Armageddon" to describe the conflict that they 

saw was inevitable. Years ago the London Contemporary 

Review said: 

"Odd things are happening everywhere. . . . Russia, Germany, Eng- 
land — these are great names ; they palpitate with great ideas ; they have 
vast destinies before them, and millions of armed men in their pay, all 
awaiting Armageddon." 

In June, 1909, Lord Rosebery, in a speech before a press 
convention in London, commented gravely upon the signifi- 
cance of the feverish haste with which the nations were arm- 
ing themselves, "as if for some great Armageddon, and that 
in a time of the profoundest peace." 

To quote from a popular American magazine, of the same 
year: 

"Today all Europe is divided into two armed camps, waiting breath- 
lessly for the morrow with its Armageddon." — Everybody's Magazine, 
November, 1909. 

Thus, everywhere, observers saw that the rivalry of in- 
terests among the nations was leading to a conflict so 
overwhelmingly vast that only the Scriptural word "Ar- 
mageddon," with its appeal to the imagination, seemed ade- 
quately suggestive of its proportions. 

Every passing year added to the intensity of feeling and 
the antagonism of interests. In 1911 the London Nineteenth 
Century and After said: 




COPYRIGHT BY UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD, N. Y» 

UNITED STATES 
BATTLESHIP ** NEVADA" 



Photograph taken from the Manhattan 
Bridge, New York. 



Armageddon 



341 



"Never was national and racial feeling stronger upon earth than it 
is now. Never was preparation for war so tremendous and so sustained. 
Never was striking power so swift and so terribly formidable. . . . The 
shadow of conflict and of displacement greater than any which mankind 
has known since Attila and his Huns were stayed at Chalons, is visibly 
impending over the world. Almost can the ear of imagination hear the 
gathering of the legions for the fiery trial of peoples, a sound vast as the 
trumpet of the Lord of hosts." — Quoted in the Literary Digest, May 6, 1911. 




PHOTO BY CENTRAL NEWS PHOTO SERVICE. N. 

COMRADES AFTER 
THE BATTLE 



Soldiers bringing in two wounded 
captives. 



What the ancient prophecy foretold — the preparing of 
war in the last days, the waking up and arming of the nations 
— we have seen fulfilling before our eyes in this generation. 

Satanic Agencies at Work 

In prophecies of the gathering of the nations for the last 
great struggle, Inspiration draws aside the veil, and allows 
us to see the agencies that have been stirring up the world 



342 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

for the war. As the prophet John was shown in vision the 
scenes of the last days, he saw the invisible powers of Satan, 
"the spirits of devils/' going forth '^unto the kings of the 
earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle 
of that great day of God Almighty." Rev. 16: 14. 

Earnest-minded statesmen have lamented their helpless- 
ness to combat the forces and influences pressing the world 
on toward conflict. In one of his last speeches as premier 
of Great Britain, the late Marquis of Sahsbury was defending 
yet further calls for army and navy appropriations. He 
said: 

"For years public opinion was in favor of a pacific policy, but now 
that state of opinion has passed away. The tide has turned, and who 
am I, and who are we, that we should attempt to stem the tide? If the 
tide has turned, we shall have to go with it. We are in the presence of 
forces far larger than we can wield." 

What those forces were, the aged statesman did not rec- 
ognize, but the prophecy tells us. The prophet was shown 
the evil spirits from Satan going forth everywhere as the end 
nears, to stir up the whole world to the last great conflict. 

Sir Edward Grey, British foreign secretary, described these 
agencies very accurately. Speaking in the House of Com- 
mons, Nov. 27, 1911, he said: 

"It is really as if in the atmosphere of the world there were some 
mischievous influence at work, which troubles and excites every part of it." 

It is all coming to pass exactly as the sure word of proph- 
ecy foretold. 

The conviction that great and decisive events are at hand 
has taken possession of many hearts in all the world. When 
the European war broke out in 1914, on a scale unprecedented 
in human history, it was no wonder that the question sprang 
to many Hps, *'Is it Armageddon?" 

The question was not lightly asked. The committee of 
the Church Missionary Society (Church of England), one of 
the greatest missionary organizations in the world, sent a 
message to its missionaries in all lands at the outbreak of the 



Armageddon 343 

war. In this message was a call to prepare for tMe coming 

of the Lord: 

"It may be that these events will quickly usher in the return of Christ 
to gather His saints together from the four quarters of the earth. . . . 
Many see in the events preceding and accompanying this terrible cata- 
clysm of war the signs of our Lord's near return. If so, blessed wiU that 
servant be whom his Lord when He cometh shall find giving 'their food 
in due season' to those fellow servants who have been put in his charge." 
— Church Missionary Review, November, 1914' 

Timely as this call was, it was evident, from the prophetic 
scriptures, that the conflict then opening could not be the 
Armageddon of the Apocalypse, for the prelude to that final 
clash of nations is an event yet in the future — the downfall 
of a nation whose part in the closing scenes is clearly de- 
scribed in the prophecy of the coming Armageddon. 

The end of the power which rules over the territory through 
which the river Euphrates flows, is the prelude to Armaged- 
don. The prophecy says: 

"The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river 
Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the 
way of the kings of the East might be prepared." Rev. 16: 12. 

Next follows the gathering of 'Hhe whole world" to 'Hhe 
battle of that great day of God Almighty." Verse 14. 

Through all modern times Turkey has been identified 
with the Euphrates. The region of Syria and Asia Minor, 
long held by Turkey, has been the historic meeting place of 
the East and the West. In the London Fortnightly RevieWy 
May, 1915, Mr. J. B. Firth wrote: 

"When, with the fall of Ottoman sovereignty at Constantinople, 
the Turk is driven out of Europe, there will arise once more the eternal 
question of the possession of Asia Minor. That land is the corridor be- 
tween Europe and Asia, along which have passed most of the European 
conquerors — the Russians alone excepted — who have invaded Asia, 
and most of the Asiatic conquerors who have invaded Europe." 

The fall of the Turkish power in this Euphrates region 
will, in some manner, prepare the way for ''the kings of the 
East" to come up to the final conflict. 



344 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

• , The Awakening of the East 

The same spirit that has been stirring up the West in prep- 
aration for the contest has been working in the East also. 
Year after year observers have pointed out the great changes 
taking place in Asia. September, 1909, the London Con- 
temporary Review said: 

"The whole of Asia is in the throes of rebirth. At last we may see 
these three — the yellow race, the Indian race, and the Arab-Persian 
Mohammedan race. And aU that is making for the Armageddon." 

A writer in the May, 1913, issue of the London Nineteenth 
Century and After, reviewing the situation at the close of the 
Balkan War, said; 

"A new spirit is abroad in the East. It arose on the shores of the 
Pacific when Japan proved that the great powers of Europe are not in- 
vulnerable. North and south and west it has spread, rousing China out 
of centuries of slumber, stirring India into ominous questioning, reviving 
memories of past glory in Persia, breeding discontent in Egypt, and luring 
Turkey onto the rocks." 

With all the nations stirred up by the spirit agencies of 
the god of this world, the prophet next saw the armies of earth 
gathering to the last great battle. The prophecy continues: 

"And he gathered them together into a place called in 
the Hebrew tongue Armageddon." Rev. 16: 16. 

Armageddon means the hill, or mount, of Megiddo, which 

overlooks the plain of Esdraelon, the historic battle ground 

of northern Palestine. Carmack says of it: 

"Megiddo was the military key of Syria; it commanded at once 
the highway northward to Phoenicia and Coele-Syria and the road across 
Galilee to Damascus and the vaUey of the Euphrates. It was moreover 
the chief town in a district of great fertihty, the contested possession of 
many races. The vale of Kishon and the region of Megiddo were inevi- 
table battle fields. Through aU history they retained that quahfication; 
there many of the great contests of southwestern Asia have been decided. 
In the history of Israel it was the scene of frequent battles. From such 
association the district achieved a dark nobility; it was regarded as a pre- 
destined place of blood and strife; the poet of the Apocalypse has clothed 
it with awe as the ground of the final conflict between the powers of hght 
and darkness." — " Pre-Biblical Syria and Palestine," p. 82. 



Armageddon 345 

Thus Armageddon, as the "military key of Syria," marks 
Palestine and the Near East as the great international storm 
center in the final conflict. 

The Political Storm Center 

In vision, nearly two thousand years ago, the prophet 
saw the forces of the last days gathering around this pivotal 
region. Today observers recognize the eastern Mediterra- 
nean as indeed the pivotal point around which international 
interests involving East and West naturally revolve. 

Some years ago, in discussing railway development in Asia 
and Africa, and the great highways of sea transportation, 
the London Fortnightly Review said: 

"Palestine is the great center, the meeting of the roads. Whoever 
holds Palestine, commands the great Unes of communication, not only 
by land, but also by sea." 

Again, the Manchester Guardian, emphasizing the impor- 
tance attaching to this strategic center, said during the great 
war: 

"Egypt, as things are, — and the fact cannot be too often empha- 
sized, — is the weak spot in our system of imperial defense by sea power. 
Not until Palestine is ia our possession can Egypt be regarded as safe." 
— Quoted in Literary Digest, Feb. 12, 1916, p. 369. 

Other nations have recognized the strategic value of a 
territory so situated. Thus political considerations make this 
region pointed out by the prophecy a center of conflicting 
interests. Hogarth, in his book, ''The Near East," calls it 
''the time-honored storm center of the eastern Mediterranean." 

The Religious Storm Center 

To the conflict of political interests is added the rivalry 
of religious sentiment. Commenting on the religious asso- 
ciations of Palestine in relation to the international political 
situation, the London Spectator some years ago stated the 
matter thus: 

" People often ask how it is that the future of Palestine presents such 
difficulties. The reason is simply that Jerusalem — you cannot separate 



346 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

Jerusalem from Palestine — is the sacred city of so many creeds and war- 
ring faiths. Not only is it the holy place of all the Christian churches, — 
and two of them quarrel bitterly over it, the Greeks and the Latins, — 
but it is also one of the most sacred places in the Mohammedan world. 
Mecca and Medina are hardly more sacred than the Mosque of Omar. 
That is a fact which is often ignored by Europeans, who forget that to 
tiu'n the Mohammedans out of the temple inclosure would disturb the 
whole Moslem world, from the Straits Settlements to Albania. We must 
never forget that Mohammedan pilgrims from India visit Jerusalem, just 
as Christian pilgrims visit it from Europe. Lastly, Jerusalem is pro- 
foundly sacred to the Jews, and the Jews are beginning to be locally 
numerous and important. Most certaialy there are no elements of diffi- 
culty wanting in the problem of the future of Palestine." 

History records the fact that rivalry over the care of the 
traditional holy places helped to precipitate one European 
war — that of the Crimea. 

In the study of the Eastern Question, we have seen that 
the prophecy of Daniel 11 marks Jerusalem as stiU a storm 
center in the closing scenes. A British consul in Jerusalem, 
in the days following the Crimean War, set forth suggestively 
his view of one of the factors in the Eastern Question. He 
wrote: 

"The very heart and kernel of the Eastern Question can only be 
reached in the Holy City, Jerusalem, where the Eastern and Western 
churches are still wrestling as of old for the mastery. . . . Now as here- 
tofore, disguise the object as they may, they are striving for a prize which 
has not been destined by divine Providence for either; and this prize is 
no less than a virtual dominion over the Christian world, from a throne 
of government within the sanctuaries of the Holy City; and the possession 
of that throne would involve possession of the key to universal dominion." 
— ''Stirring Times: Records from Jerusalem Consulate Chronicles," by 
James Finn, introductory note by editor, p. xxiii. 

Foretold in Prophecy 

By every consideration — pohtical, racial, and religious — 
the Near East supphes aU the elements for involving the 
whole world when once the sweepiag displacements begin 
which the prophecy foretold, and for which statesmen in our 
day have sought to prepare. 



Armageddon 347 

Long ages ago the prophet of God, in vision on the Isle 
of Patmos, was shown the clash of interests and the gathering 
of the nations around this historic center. Before our eyes 
today we see events tending to give to this region the very 
character assigned to it by the prophecy. It was written in 
the sure word of prophecy in order that, as the events fore- 
told are seen approaching, men may believe and turn to God, 
and find salvation from the things coming upon the earth. 

Into the prophecy of this sixteenth chapter of Revelation, 
describing the gathering of forces to Armageddon, our Saviour 
interjects the warning and the appeal: 

''Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, 
and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see 
his shame." Verse 15. 

The last earthly events that the prophecy is dealing with 
— the pouring out of the seven last plagues, and the clash of 
Armageddon — come after probation closes. The close of pro- 
bation, the passing of the ministry of Christ in the heavenly 
temple, will come as a thief; unannounced. Our only safety 
is in yielding heart and life to him now for cleansing, and 
accepting from his hand the garments of his own righteousness, 
freely offered to every one. 

What Conies with Armageddon 

Whatever ambitions or aims may be the impelling mo- 
tives when the gathering to the great conflict comes, one 
thing is certain: Armageddon is to bring triumph and world 
dominion to no earthly power. As the nations gather, the 
Lord intervenes from heaven, and the history of the kingdoms 
of this world is closed at last. The prophet tells the sequel 
to Armageddon: 

''He gathered them together into a place called in the 
Hebrew tongue Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured 
out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out 
of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying. It is done. 
And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and 



348 Our Day in the Light of Prcrphecfy 

there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were 
upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And 
the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of 
the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance 
before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierce- 
ness of His wrath. And ever>^ island fled away, and the 
mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great 
hail out of heaven, everj^ stone about the weight of a talent: 
and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; 
for the plague thereof was exceeding great." Rev. 16: 16-21. 

The fall of the Turkish power is the prelude to the gather- 
ing of the nations to the battle of Armageddon. And Arma- 
geddon is the prelude to the end of the world and Christ's 
glorious coming as Elng of kings and Lord of lords. The 
armies gathered to battle for supremacy find themselves 
suddenly arrayed against the armies of heaven. Another 
prophecy describes the scene when Christ is revealed: 

''The kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich 
men, and the chief captains, and the might}^ men, and every 
bondman, and ever^^ free man, hid themselves in the dens and 
in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains 
and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that 
sitteth on the throne, and from the ^Tath of the Lamb: for 
the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to 
stand?" Rev. 6:15-17. 

Again, as the great searchlight of di\dne prophecy fights 
up the way before us, we see by the course of present-day 
events that the end is drawing ver^^ near. By what sudden 
turn of affairs the last things to be done in history may be 
set in motion, none can foresee. The Sa^dour admonishes 
every soul, ''Therefore be ye also read}-: for in such an hour 
as ye think not the Son of man cometh." Matt. 24:44. 

It is for this time of waiting, especially, that Christ spoke 
the parable of the ten virgins who waited for the bridegroom. 
All sincerety wanted to meet him; all expected to be ready. 
But when the cry was raised, "Behold, the bridegroom com- 



Armageddon 



349 



eth; go ye out to meet him!" only five were ready. The 
others lacked the oil that was to give them light. We know 
what the oil represents — the genuine heart experience of the 
grace and love of Christ. 

Those overtaken unready, hastened away to get oil. '^ And 
while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that 




THE TEN VIRGINS 



"They that were ready went in with him to the 
marriage: and the door was shut." Matt. 25:10. 



were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door 
was shut." Matt. 25: 10. Those that were ready went in; 
those that were getting ready were too late. How came some 
to be ready? — They were ready all the time; they kept ready. 
This lesson is for us now. Our only safety is in being ready 
every day, keeping sins forgiven, the life surrendered to God. 



s^ 




UJ 


xS ^V * (ft z 


>• 


g 


2 




2<o >w <in5 


q: 


fiaf 




UJ 
UJ 


UJ 
UJ 


uj a uj ^«»,>v 




2^ 








go < Noiioaaansaa <iN033§„-..<?^ 






*--« ^.^"^"^y^ 


















5«o af^*^ >^ 












WS^ >^ 








,«<Ks 






UJ 






t- 




< 




hi 


—I 
o 

UJ 

UJ 


s 






D 




z 
o 


Z 




VJ 


Z 




UJ 
Of 


u 




Of 


J 




UJ 


J 




o 


^ 




s 


£. 




1- 






UJ 


lU 

X 




UJ 
UJ 


H 




f- 






UJ 






OQ 






C/5 

Of 




E 








o 
o 




J^|\ 


© 






^ 




iO >v 






<Z \ 






*- = ^ \. 






«.o ^v«^ \ 






•neo ^^>v,^^ N. 






W ^""""-....^^ >^ 






iaS ^"^^ 












go« tio\i33nms2)i xsnu.,^ 


UJ 




tt ^^.---''''^/^ 


o 


«0 




<E 


S 


Sri"^ / 


Z 


o 


u ©VJ / 


^ 




tf}W^ >^ 


h^ 


H 


5t;i/^ 


52 


</) 


a£ 


« 


55s 


s 


^ 


«« of 


v^ 







CHRIST COMING FOR 
HIS OWN 



"They lived and reigned with Christ a 
thousand years." Rev. 20:4. 



THE MILLENNIUM 



The word ^'millennium" means ''a thousand years." 
Xhis definite period is referred to specifically in but one chap- 
ter of the Bible, the twentieth of Revelation; and in that 
chapter it is spoken of repeatedly. We find it to be: 

The period during which the saints reign with Christ in 
judgment. 

The period during which Satan is bound. 

The measure of time between the two resurrections, that 
of the just and that of the unjust. 

An examination of the scriptures bearing upon the mil- 
lennium will show: 

1. The events that mark its beginning. 

2. The events that occur during the thousand years. 

3. The events that come at the end of the period. 
We shall find it clearly taught in these scriptures: 

That the millennium begins at the second coming of Christ. 

351 



352 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

That the reign of the saints with Him in judgment is not 
on this earth, but in heaven. 

That this earth, void of human inhabitants, is Satan^s 
prison house during the thousand years. 

That at the end of the thousand years the judgment deter- 
mined is executed upon Satan and all the wicked. 

That this earth, purified by the fires of the last judgment, 
and renewed, becomes the eternal home of the saved. 

1. Events at the Beginning of the Thousand Years 

The key to the time is furnished by the declaration that 
the millennium begins with — 

The Resurrection of the Just 

Speaking of the risen saints, the Scripture says: 
"They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 
But the rest of the dead [the wicked] lived not again until 
the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrec- 
tion. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first res- 
urrection." Rev. 20:4-6. 

There are to be two resurrections. The apostle Paul said 
that this was the teaching of all Scriptm-e: "There shall be 
a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." 
Acts 24: 15. The first resurrection, that of the just, marks 
the beginning of the thousand years. 

Christ's Second Coming 

When is this first resurrection, in the order of events in 
this "day of the Lord"? It is at the second advent of Christ. 
One scripture, out of many, will suffice to state it: 

"The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a 
shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the triunp 
of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first." 1 Thess. 4: 16. 

As the Saviour comes in glory, with all the holy angels, 
the graves are opened, and His voice awakens His children 
who sleep in the dust. 



The' Millennium 35.3 

''He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, 
and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, 
from one end of heaven to the other." Matt. 24: 31. 

The time of Christ's second coming, therefore, is the begin- 
ning of the millenniiun. 

The Righteous Taken to Heaven 

The living righteous are translated, and, together with 
the risen saints, are taken to heaven, as the apostle says: 

"Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up 
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: 
and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thess. 4: 17. 

This was the Saviour's promise: 

"In My Father's house are many mansions. ... I go to 
prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place 
for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; 
that where I am, there ye may be also." John 14: 2, 3. 

The Destruction of the Wicked 

At Christ's second coming the wicked are slain. The un- 
believing left without shelter in that day, cannot endure the 
presence of such glory as will burst upon the world: 

"The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His 
mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that 
know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus 
Christ." 2 Thess. 1:7, 8. 

The Binding of Satan 

With the saints in heaven, beyond the reach of Satan's 
wiles, and with the wicked dead, not to live again till the 
thousand years are finished, Satan is "bound" — confined by 
divine power to this earth, which becomes his prison house, 
there being neither saint nor sinner upon Avhom to ply his arts 
of deception. No prisoner was ever more effectually chained. 
The symbolical language of the prophet pictures the scene: 

"I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key 
of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And 

23 



354 Our Dajj in the Light of Prophecy 

he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the 
Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast 
him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal 
upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till 
the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must 
be loosed a httle season.'^ Rev. 20: 1-3. 

These are the events that mark the beginning of the thou- 
sand years: Christ's second coming, the resurrection of the 
just, the ascent of all the redeemed to the city of God, the 
death of the wicked, and, in consequence, the binding of Satan. 

2. Events During the Thousand Years 

In Heaven 

Scene after scene of glory is spread before us in the visions 
the prophets were given of the redeemed in the city of God. 
The prophet John says: 

''After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which 
no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and peo- 
ple, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, 
clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. . . . 
Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him 
day and night in His temple." Rev. 7:9-15. 

They ''serve" in the temple of the Lord, the prophet says; 
while the poet sings: 

""^Tience came the armies of the sky, 
John saw in vision bright? 
Whence came their crowns, their robes, their pahns, 
Too pure for mortal sight? 

"From desert waste, and cities full, 
From dmigeons dark, they've come, 
And now they claim their mansion fair. 
They've found their long-sought home." 

One service in which the saved have part during the thou- 
sand years is the work of judgment that still remains, pre- 
paratory to the final visitation of sin and the destruction of 
Satan and all his works. The prophet saw this work going 



The Millennium 355 

forward in the heavenly courts, the redeemed associated with 
Christ in the service: 

"I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment 
was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were 
beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, 
and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, 
neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in 
their hands; and they hved and reigned with Christ a thou- 
sand years." Rev. 20:4. 

It was to this work of judging the wicked and the evil 
angels, that the apostle Paul referred in the counsel to the 
Corinthians: *^Do ye not know that the saints shall judge 
the world? . . . Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" 
ICor. 6:2, 3. 

On Earth 

While in heaven above the saved are with Christ and the 
holy angels before the throne, and follow the Lamb whither- 
soever He goeth, it is to be remembered that on earth all is 
desolation and emptiness. The wicked have been slain by 
the glory of Christ's coming. By the quaking of the earth 
the cities of the nations have fallen in ruin, islands have been 
removed, and mountains cast into the depths of the sea. The 
condition of the earth during this time of desolation is thus 
described by the prophet: 

''I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and 
void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the 
mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved 
lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the 
birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful 
place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken 
down at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger." 
Jer. 4:23-26. 

*' Without form, and void," said the prophet. This is the 
same phrase that is used in the opening verses of Genesis to 
describe the chaotic state of the earth in the beginning. At 
the beginning of creation week the earth was in a state of 



356 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

emptiness and chaos — an ''abyss/' as it is called in the 
Greek translation of Genesis. Again, during this thousand- 
year period, the earth is an "abyss," or a desolate waste. 
''Abyss" is the meaning of the word translated "bottomless 
pit" in the text telling of the binding of Satan by the mighty 
angel of God: 

"He laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is 
the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and 
cast him into the bottomless pit." Rev. 20:2, 3. The Re- 
vised Version says, "And cast him into the abyss." - 

Confined to this pit or abyss of desolation, as a prisoner 
in a prison house, with none to tempt, the author of sin has 
a thousand years in which to view the ruin that sin has wrought 
in the earth that once left its Maker's hand beautiful and 
perfect, unmarred by any curse. 

3. Events at the End of the Thousand Years 

At the end of the millennium, this earth becomes the 
scene of events that close the great controversy between 
Christ and Satan. 

The Descent of the Holy City 

The judgment work in heaven having been accompHshed, 
the hour has come for the execution of the judgment upon 
sin and sinners. The holy city comes down out of heaven. 
The prophet saw its descent in vision: 

"I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down 
from God out of heaven." Rev. 21:2. 

The Loosing of Satan 

"When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be 
loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the na- 
tions." Rev. 20:7, 8. 

With all the wicked destroyed by the glory of Christ's 
second coming, Satan had been effectually bound; but now, 
as the city descends, the voice of Christ calls forth the wicked 
dead, and Satan is thus loosed, and assmnes control again of 
those who have chosen him as their master. 



The Millennium 357 

It is the time of which the Scripture speaks: "The rest of 
the dead hved not again until the thousand years were finished." 
Verse 5. The prophet saw the hosts of the lost called forth. 
"The sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and 
hell [the "grave," margin] delivered up the dead which were 
in them." Verse 13. 

Thus Satan's subjects come forth to the last judgment. 
The resurrection of the wicked of all the ages is the loosing 
of Satan. Here again is his kingdom, and again he plies his 
deceptions and takes up anew his fight against God. How 
very natural that Satan should persuade the wicked that he 
has raised them to life, that his word in the beginning was 
true, "Ye shall not surely die"! If they are immortal, why 
may they not yet prevail against God? Satan rallies his 
angels and the hosts of the wicked, in numbers "as the sand 
of the sea," to make an attack upon the city of God. 

"How vast the concourse! not in number more 
The waves that break on the resounding shore, 
The leaves that tremble in the shady grove, 
The lamps that gild the spangled vaults above; 
Those overwhelming armies, whose command 
Said to one empire. Fall; another, Stand; 
» Whose rear lay wrap't in night, while breaking dawn 
Rous'd the broad front, and called the battle on; 
Great Xerxes' world in arms, proud Cannae's field, 
Where Carthage taught victorious Rome to yield, 
Immortal Blenheim, fam'd Ramilha's host; — 
They all are here, and here they all are lost; 
Their millions swell, to be discerned in vain, 
Lost as a billow in th' unbounded main." 

— Edward Young's "Last Day." 

"They went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed 
the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city." Verse 9. 
The Wicked Before the Bar of God 

But as the hosts of evil compass the city, they are halted 
by the glory and majesty of the Redeemer's presence, en- 
throned as eternal victor over sin. Just here must apply 
the prophet's words: 



358 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



''I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from 
whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there 
was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small 
and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; 
and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and 
the dead were judged out of those things which were written 
in the books, according to their works." Rev. 20:11, 12. 




THE HOLY CITY DESCENDS 



*•' Behold, the tabemacic of God is with 
men." Rev. 21:3. 



During the thousand years the records in heaven have 
been re^dewed, and the degrees of guilt estabhshed. Xow the 
judgment is to be pronounced and executed. But first the 
record of the books and the eternal righteousness of God's 
hoh' law are flashed by divine power upon the consciences 
of all the lost — "their conscience also bearing witness" (Rom. 
2: 15) that they are without excuse. 

The Destruction of Sin 

Sin is now to be blotted from the imiverse of God; and 
those who have chosen to be identified with sin perish with 



The Millennium 359 

it. All that Infinite Love can do has been done in the gift 
of Christ to save men from the transgression of the holy law 
of God. That salvation rejected, there is nothing remaining 
that heaven can offer. There is no further sacrifice that can 
be made. "There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins." 
Heb. 10:26. 

Then follows the last scene in the conflict with evil: 
"They went up on the breadth of the earth, and com- 
passed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: 
and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured 
them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the 
lake of fire. . . . And death and hell [the grave] were cast into 
the lake of fire. This is the second death." Rev. 20:9-14. 
The second death ends sin and the author of sin, and 
death itself. The controversy is ended. Christ's death has 
purged sin from the universe of God. 

The Earth Purified and Made New' 

The fires that consume the wicked melt the earth and 
purify it from all trace of the curse. It is the day of which 
Peter wrote: 

*^ Wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and 
the elements shall melt with fervent heat." But after this 
cleansing of every element of this sin-cursed earth, the promise 
of God will be fulfilled in the earth made new, as the eternal 
home of the saved. As Peter says, after telling of the day 
of burning, ''Nevertheless we, according to His promise, 
look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth right- 
eousness." 2 Peter 3: 12, 13. 

"O sweet and blessed country, 

The home of God's elect! 
O sweet and blessed country, 

That eager hearts expect! 
Jesus, in mercy bring us 

To that dear land of rest; 
Who art, with God the Father, 

And Spirit, ever blest." 




MOSES VIEWING THE 
PROMISED LAND 



" Blessed are the meek: for they shall 
inherit the earth." Matt. 5:5. 




THE SPIES* RETURN 



The land, which we passed through to search 
it, is an exceeding good land." Num. 14:7. 



THE HOME OF THE SAVED 



The Land of Peace 

The Bible opens with a new heaven and a new earth, 
perfect from the Creator's hand; with man sinless and having 
access to the tree of life in the midst of the Eden paradise, 
out of which flowed a river that spread its life-giving waters 
through the earth. 

The Bible closes with a new heaven and a new earth; 
with man upright and sinless, having right to the tree of 
life growing in the midst of Eden; with the river of life flow- 
ing out from the garden of God, clear as crystal. 

Between the two scenes spreads out the panorama of six 
thousand years of conflict with sin. It is a story of the fall 
of man, of the loss of his Eden home, of the curse that marred 
the earth, of sin and sorrow and death overspreading all. 

361 



362 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

The Restorer 

But from the hour when the shadow of sin fell upon the 
earth, there has been a light shining in the darkness. Amid 
the ruin that sin had wrought, there appeared the great Re- 
storer. 

The inspired record gives a word-picture of Jesus taking 
man's place to win back the lost dominion: 

*'Unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world 
to come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testi- 
fied, saying. What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? 
or the son of man, that Thou visitest him? Thou madest 
him a little lower than the angels; Thou crownedst him with 
glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of Thy 
hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. 
For in that He put all in subjection under Him, He left noth- 
ing that is not put under Him. But now we see not yet all 
things put under him. But we see Jesus." Heb. 2: 5-9. 

Just where Adam fell and lost his dominion over the earth, 
we see Jesus, the second Adam, taking man's place and win- 
ning back the lost inheritance. That is why the picture of 
the new earth and man's sinless state depicted in the first 
two chapters of the Bible is repeated in the last two chapters 
with even greater fulness of glory. God's original plan and 
purpose will be carried out, and this earth, renewed, will be 
the eternal home of sinless men and women, redeemed by 
grace. 

Sin will be found not to have frustrated, but only to have 
delayed, the purpose of God. And what is six thousand 
years in working out th^ divine plan? In our brief span we 
may divide human history into ancient, medieval, and mod- 
ern; but in heaven's life a thousand years are but as "a watch 
in the night;" and these six watches are to heaven but as one 
night of grief and of loving ministry in rescuing the lost. 

It has cost all that heaven had to give. But the infinite 
Gift was made, and all heaven has wrought at the work. Of 
the angels it is written, ''Are they not all ministering spirits, 



The Home of the Saved 363 

sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salva- 
tion?" Heb. 1:14. 

Bringing Back the Lost Dominion 

Of all the worlds that shine in the heavens, declaring the 
glory of God, this earth is the one that was lost. Its light 
went out in darkness. It wandered from the fold of God's 
perfect creation. 

Then the divine Shepherd came to find it and bring it 
back. And the angels that rejoiced when they saw this earth 
created, — '^when the morning stars sang together, and all 
the sons of God shouted for joy," — will again rejoice as the 
Lord brings back His own, — this earth, redeemed from 
the curse, shining in the bright universe again with the per- 
fection of the glory of God. 

Christ not only redeems lost men, but He is to redeem 
this lost earth. *'The Son of man," He said, *'is come to seek 
and to save that which was lost." Luke 19: 10. 

By sinning, man lost not only his righteousness and his 
life, but his dominion as well. Originally man had dominion 
''over all the earth." Gen. 1:26. As the psalmist says, 
''Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy 
hands." Ps. 8:6. He was prince and ruler of the earth. 
But when he yielded to Satan's temptation, he yielded up that 
dominion to the enemy, thus placing himself in the power 
of his foe. Satan thus became the "prince of this world," 
exercising the dominion wrested from man. 

But through Christ, this dominion is to be restored. The 
prophet of old said: 

"Thou, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daugh- 
ter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; 
the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem." 
Micah 4:8. 

The Hope of the Promise 

The promise of the gospel of salvation is the promise not 
only of life eternal through faith, but of an eternal inher- 



364 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

itance in the earth made new, the fulfihnent of the Creator's 
plan when He made this world to be the home of man. This 
was the star of hope that shone before Adam and Eve as they 
stepped forth from Eden into a dying world. It was the 
promise to Abraham, 'Hhe promise, that he should be the 
heir of the world." Rom. 4: 13. 

It was not the promise of the world in its present state. 
For the Lord gave Abraham ''none inheritance in it, no, not 
so much as to set his foot on." Acts 7:5. Abraham him- 
self did not look for the promise to be fulfilled in this sinful 
earth, but in the earth made new, redeemed from sin. The 
Scripture says of his hope: 

"By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a 
strange country: ... for he looked for a city which hath 
foundations, whose builder and maker is God." Heb. 11: 
9, 10. 

It was in the new earth and the New Jerusalem that Abra- 
ham, the father of the faithful, expected to receive the eternal 
inheritance promised to him and to his seed. And there all 
the faithful will find their inheritance. 

''If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs 
according to the promise." Gal. 3:29. 

The psalmist said, "The meek shall inherit the earth." 
Ps. 37: 11. Christ repeated it: "Blessed are the meek: for 
they shall inherit the earth." Matt. 5:5. 

The New Earth and the New Jerusalem 

Through the prophet Isaiah the Lord described the re- 
creation of this earth to be the home of the saved: 

"Behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth: and 
the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. 
But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create: 
for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a 
joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people: 
and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, 
nor the voice of crying." Isa. 65: 17-19. 



The Home of the Saved 365 

It is not of old Jerusalem that the prophet is speaking, 
but of the New Jerusalem, which John saw coming down, 
with the saints, from God out of heaven. He saw it descend- 
ing upon the earth at the end of the thousand years, and saw 
the wicked come forth from their graves to judgment. Then 
he saw the fires of the last day falling upon the lost, consuming 
sin and sinners, and purifying the earth itself from every 
trace of the curse. It is the day of which Peter wrote, '' Wherein 
the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements 
shall melt with fervent heat." But he adds, ''Nevertheless 
we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a 
new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 2 Peter 3: 12, 13. 

Out from the dissolved elements of the earth and the at- 
mospheric heavens the Creator's power again calls forth new 
heavens and a new earth, the old creation cleansed and re- 
newed in the perfection of the original Eden paradise. It 
is coming; for John saw it in vision. ''I saw," he says, "a 
new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the 
first earth were passed away." Rev. 21: 1. 

He saw the city which had come down from heaven — 
those mansions that Christ is now gone to prepare — the 
New Jerusalem, the holy capital of the eternal kingdom of 
the saints, where Christ's own throne is set. 

"I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the 
tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, 
and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with 
them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears 
from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither 
sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for 
the former things are passed away. And He that sat upon 
the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He 
said unto me. Write: for these words are true and faithful." 
Rev. 21:3-5. 

It passes comprehension; but it is true. And the life of 
the saved in their eternal inheritance will be just as real as 
is life upon this present earth. 




THE SAINTS' ETERNAL 
HOME 



I saw a new heaven and a new earth: 
for the fii st hea%'en and the first earth 
were passed away." Rev. 21:1. 



The Home of the Saved 367 

''They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they 
shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them." ''The 
wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat 
straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. 
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, 
saith the Lord." Isa. 65: 21, 25. 

The whole earth will be as the Eden paradise planted by 
God in the beginning. And from week to week and from 
month to month the saved will gather to worship before the 
glorious throne in the holy city. 

''As the new heavens and the new earth, which I will 
make, shall remain before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed 
and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from 
one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, 
shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord." 
Isa. 66:22, 23. 

The Glories of the Saints' Eternal Home 

As the first two chapters of the Bible tell of earth's original 
perfection, so the last two chapters constitute one psalm of 
ecstasy over the indescribable glories of the earth made new, 
with its city of light, the walls of jasper, the gates of pearl, 
the river of life flowing from the throne of the Lamb, clear as 
crystal, with the widespreading tree of life on either side of 
the river. And supreme above all, Jesus Himself, "the Eang 
in His beauty," without whom there would be no glory even 
in that city foursquare; "for the glory of God did lighten it, 
and the Lamb is the light thereof." 

"Oh, heaven without my Saviour 
Would be no heaven to me; 
Dim were the walls of jasper, 
Ray less the crystal sea! 

"He gilds earth's darkest valleys 
With light and joy and peace; 
Then what must be the radiance 
Where sin and death shall cease?" 



368 Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 

Next to the loveliness and grace of Christ our Saviour, 
the glories of this world to come have inspired the sweetest 
h}Tans of hope for longing hearts. How often has the spirit 
been lifted above earth's trials as we have sung, 

"O that home of the soul! in my visions and dreams 
Its bright, jasper waUs I can see 
Till I fancy but thinly the veil intervenes 
Between the fair citj'' and me. 

"That unchangeable home is for j'ou and for me, 
Where Jesus of Nazareth stands; 
The King of aU kingdoms forever is He, 
And He holdeth our crowns in His hands. 

"O how sweet it will be in that beautiful land, • 

So free from aU sorrow and pain. 
With songs on our Hps and with harps in our hands, 
To meet one another again!" 

''But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which 
God hath prepared for them that love Him.'' 

Through the ages, the children of the promise have been 
journe^dng toward the city which hath foundations, whose 
builder and maker is God, and they have confessed them- 
selves pilgrims and strangers in this present world. As they 
have followed the way of righteousness, — oftentimes a thorny 
path, — it has been with the shining city ever before their 
vision. As they have fallen in death, it has been Ts-ith closing 
eyes fixed upon ''that day" when Christ shall come to take 
His people to the New Jerusalem prepariag above. 

" The Lamb there in His beauty 
Without a veil is seen. 
It were a well-spent journey 

Though seven deaths lay between." 

Now earth's course is nearly run. It is but a little way to 
the holy city, where the water of life flows clear as crystal 
from the midst of the throne. The water of life is really there; 




THE MASTER AT 
THE DOOR 

24 



Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear 
My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, 
and will sup with him, and he with Me." Rev. 3:20. 



370 



Our Day in the Light of Prophecy 



for the Lord showed it to the prophet John in vision, that 

he might tell us that he saw it. *'I John saw the holy city," 

he says, ''and he showed me a pure river of water of life, 

clear as crystal." Rev. 21: 2; 22: 1. 

Christ invites every one to share the eternal inheritance, 

giving assurance of His power to save to the uttermost all 

that come unto God by Him. He is knocking at the door of 

every heart, asking admittance, in order that He may take 

away all sin, and prepare the soul for the heavenly home. 

And the glories of the holy city invite us to come: 

''The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that 

heareth say. Come. And let him that is athirst come. And 

whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Rev. 

22: 17. 

**He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come 
quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." 




EVENTIDE 



Home to the fold. 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND AUTHORITIES 



Page 
Abraham, parable of rich man 

and Lazai-us 284 

"Abridgment of Christian Doc- 
trine," on change of Sabbath-- 156 
Adolphus, on study of prophecy. 305 
Advent message. Bates as advo- 
cate of 244 

Advent movement, extent of, 

Brock on 241 

Advent movement of 1844 240 

iEschylus, on Medo-Persia 121 

^schylus, on Xerxes' host 323 

Alexander, conquests of, Plutarch 

on 121, 122 

Alexander, dominion of, Rawlin- 

son on 324, 325 

Alexander, empire of, Appian on_ 122 
Alexander, first king of Greece- _ 207 
Alexander, greatness of, Arrian 

on 44 

Alexander, Justin on 207 

Alexander, Lucan on 45 

Alexandra, Queen, on prepara- 
tions for w^ar 339 

Alexandria, library at, sacred 

books of Jews in 187 

Angels attending throne of God_ 296 

Angels, God's messengers 297 

Angels, guardian 300 

Angels in kingly courts 299 

Angels, messengers of deliver- 
ance 300 

Angels, their ministry 295-301 

Antitypical day of atonement 

237, 240, 241 

Apollonius, description of Baby- 
lon by 33 

Apostasy in last days, Daniel 8_ 248 

Appearing of Christ 59 

Appian, on Alexander's empire- _ 122 

Arian kingdoms plucked up 129 

Arian powers uprooted by Bel- 

isarius 134 

Armageddon, " Contemporary Re- 
view " on 339 

Armageddon, " Everybody's Mag- 
azine " on 339 

Armageddon, final clash of em- 
pires 337-349 

Armageddon, foretold in proph- 
ecy 346, 347 

Armageddon, Lord Rosebery on-- 339 
Armageddon, or Mt. Megiddo, 

Carmack on 344 

Armageddon, prelude to 343 

Armageddon, sequel of 347, 348 

Arming of the nations 106, 107 

Arrian, on Alexander's greatness 44 
Artaxerxes, date of decree to re- 
build Jerusalem 223 

Artaxerxes, date of reign of_ 225-227 
"Astronomy," Chambers, on fall- 
ing stars 101 



Atonement, antitypical day of-- 

237, 240, 241 

Avebury, Lord, on war 112 

Babylon, description of, by Apol- 
lonius 33, 34 

Babylon, desolation of 31-35 

Babylon, desolation of, Layard on 35 
Babylon, " Encyclopedia of Is- 
lam" on 35 

Babylon in prophecy and history 

119, 120 

Babylon, prophecy concerning- 39-41 
Babylon, prophecy of, confirmed 

by history 41-43 

Babylon, Strabo on 34 

Bacon, Francis, on increase of 

knowledge 306, 307 

Ball, Sir Robert, on falling stars. 100 
Bampfield, died in prison for Sab- 
bath keeping 179 

Baptism, conditions necessary to 

199, 200 

Baptism for believers 200 

Baptism, form of 200-203 

Baptism, manner of. Dean Stan- 
ley on 202 

Baptism, manner of, Neander on- 201 
Baptism, manner of, Pullus on-- 202 
" Baptism," meaning of word, 

Calvin on 201 

" Baptism," meaning of word, 

Luther on 201 

Baptism, memorial of resurrec- 
tion 199-203 

Baptism of infants. Dean Stan- 
ley on 202 

Baptism of Jesus, time of 

230, 231 

Baptists, Sabbatarian 179 

Baptists, Seventh Day, in Amer- 
ica 179, 180 

Barnes, Dr. Albert, on division of 

Grecia 122 

Bates, as a Sabbath keeper 244 

Baudrillart, on papal persecution- 151 
Beast, the fourth, of Daniel 7-- 

126-129 

Beasts, empires represented by__ 118 
Belisarius, Arian powers uprooted 

by 134 

Bellarmine, on great words of 

little horn 147 

Bemont and Monod, " Medieval 

Europe " 137 

Bengelius, on judgment-hour warn- 
ing 249 

Berosus, on exploits of Nebu- 
chadnezzar 120 

B-'rth'er enters Rome, Rickaby 
on 141 

371 



372 



Index of Subjects and Authorities 



Besant, Mrs. Annie, on spiritual- 
ism of the East 273 

Bible, agency in the new birth 
15, 17 

Bible and tradition 251, 252 

Bible, Christ the central theme of 23 

Bible, Dr. Harris on 20, 21 

Bible, Erasmus on 21 

Bible for all mankind 21 

Bible, given to the world, Faber 

on 308 

Bible, God its author 14 

Bible, language of. Van Dyke 

on 21, 22 

Bible, our safety and defense 18 

Bible societies, organization of__ 308 

Bible, source of all doctrine 20 

Bible, speaks to our day 13 

Bible, Spurgeon on authorship of 14 
Bible, Spurgeon's experience with 14 

Bible, the book that talks 13 

Bible, the bread of life 18 

Bible, the Christian's shield 18 

Bible, the living word 15 

Bible, the word that creates 15 

Bible, the word that works 

within 17 

Biddolf, on lessons from Lisbon 

earthquake 82 

Bishop of Rome as head of 

church, Justinian on 133 

Blunt, on doom of Turks 333 

Bogue, on persecution for Sab- 
bath keeping 178, 179 

Bonar's hymn, on state of dead__ 282 
Bower, on Sabbath observance.- 174 

Bread of life, Bible as the 18 

Brerewood, on Sabbath in first 

centuries 173 

Britten, Mrs. Emma, on Spiritual- 

ismi 269 

Brock, on extent of the advent 

movement 241 

Bruce, on desolation of Tyre 31 

Bury, on achievements of Jus- 
tinian 132 

Calamy, on Bampfield as a Sab- 
batarian 179 

Calvin, on meaning of word 

"baptism" 201 

Canon, Ptolemy's, Lindsay on 225 

Carmack, on Armageddon, or Mt. 

Megiddo 344 

Chambers, Dr., on Sabbath in Eng- 
land 177 

Chambers, on falling stars 101 

Change of Sabbath 153-167 

Charles 1, on Sabbath observance 177 

China open to the gospel 309 

Christ and Satan, controversy 

between 257-263 

Christ, central theme of Bible 23 

Christ, closing work of, in heaven 216 

Christ, death of 231 

Christ, glorious appearing of 59 

Christ, lost dominion redeemed 
by 363 



Christ, second coming of__ 51-63, 352 

Christ, the restorer 362 

Christian work of Countess of 

Huntingdon 63 

Christs, false 74 

" Church Missionary Review," on 

war a sign of end 343 

Clarke, Dr. Adam, on " living 

soul" 283 

Cleansing of the sanctuary 

211, 213-217 

Clerke, on glory of falling stars 

101, 102 

Clerke, on star shower of 1833 

94, 95 

Coming of Christ at the door 115 

Coming of Christ, beginning of 

signs of 75-77 

Coming of Christ, love of pleas- 
ure a sign of 109 

Coming of Christ, manner of__ 53-55 
Coming of Christ, political unrest 

a sign of 106 

Coming of Christ, prelude to 59 

Coming of Christ, proraise of 52 

Coming of Christ, purpose of_ 56, 57 

Coming of Christ, signs of 74, 75 

Coming of Christ, signs of, in 

industrial world 110 

Coming of Christ, signs of, in 

Matthew 24 65, 66, 112, 113 

Coming of Christ, signs of, in the 

social world 109 

Coming of Christ, signs of, upon 

the earth 105 

Coming of Christ, the Saviour's 

prophecy of 65-77 

Coming of Christ, to be as in 

days of Noah 109 

Coming of Christ, world evangel- 
ization a sign of 112 

Commandments, the ten 182 

Comte, M., on passion for pleas- 
ure 109 

Connecticut Legislature, Dark 

Day in 90 

Conroy, on temporal sovereignty 

of popes 129 

Constantine, Sunday law of 169 

" Contemporary Review," on Ar- 
mageddon 339 

"Contemporary Review," on awak- 
ening of East 344 

Controversy between Christ and 

Satan 257 

Controversy, earth the battle- 
ground of 259 

Conybeare and Howson, on the 

Sabbath 165 

Cottrell, R. F., poem by 171 

Countess of Huntingdon, Christian 

work of 63 

Covenant, confirming of the 231 

Creative power of the Word 15 

Croly, on Justinian as founder 

of papal supremacy 133 

Cuneiform writing 312 

Cyrus, conquests of, Rawlinsoh on 121 
Cyrus, Xenophon on 206 



Index of Subjects and Authorities 



373 



Dale, on non-sacredness of Sun- 
day 166 

Daniel, book of, unsealed 304 

Daniel 2, prophecy of 39-49 

Daniel 7, prophecy of 117-129 

Daniel 8, prophecy of 205-211 

Daniel, prophecy of 1260 years __ 

131, 132 

Daniel, vision of great beasts 118 

Dark Day, Boston " Gazette "on 88 

Dark Day, cause of unknown 87 

Dark Day, contemporary records 

of 88, 89 

Dark Day, Dr. Samuel Stearns 

on 89, 90 

Dark Day, effect on Connecticut 

Legislature 90 

Dark Day, " Independent Chron- 
icle " on 88, 89 

Dark Day in New England, Wil- 
liams on 86 

Dark Day, prophecy of, fulfilled- 85 
Dark Day, Timothy Dwight on__ 90 

Dark Day, Webster on 87 

Dark Day, Whittier on 

86, 87, 90. 91 

Darkening of the sun 85 

Dead, not agencies of Spiritual- 
ism 271 

Dead, sleep of 280-282 

Dead, righteous, raised to life 60 

Death, man's state in __ 275, 280-282 
Delaire, Mme. Jean, on Theosophy 

and Spiritualism 272, 273 

Desolation of Babylon 31 

Destruction of the wicked __ 61, 353 
" Dictionary of Christian An- 
tiquities," on Change of Sab- 
bath 166 

Discontent, F. T. Martin on 

growth of 112 

Doctrinal Catechism, on change 

of Sabbath 156 

Doctrinal Catechism, on power of 

church 252 

Doctrine, Bible the source of 20 

Dominion, bring back the lost 363 

Dream of Nebuchadnezzar 39, 40 

Dwight, on Dark Day 90 



Earth, cleansed and renewed- 364-367 

Earth, purified 359 

East, awakening of 344 

East, " Nineteenth Century and 

After," on new spirit in 344 

Eastern Question, Jerusalem heart 

of, Finn on 346 

Eastern Question, Maspero on__ 322 
Eastern Question, relation to end 

of world 334 

Eastern Question, the 321-335 

Eighteen forty-four. Advent 

movement in 240-244 

Elliott, on great words of little 

horn 147 

Elven, Cornelius, poem by 335 

Empires, four great universal 

117-129 



Encyclopedia Britannica, on Pal- 
estine as battle field 325, 326 

Encyclopedia of Islam, on Baby- 
lon 35 

End of the wicked 287-293 

End, time of the 303-317 

Erasmus, on the Bible 21 

Eternal fire 292, 293 

Euphrates dried up 332 

Europe, kingdoms of modern__ 46-48 

Everlasting fire 292 

Everlasting punishment 289-293 

" Everybody's Magazine," on Ar- 
mageddon 339 

Evil, origin of 257-263 

Executive judgment 261-263 

Faber, G. S,, on Bible given to 

the world 308 

Faith, justification by 191-197 

Falling stars 93 

Falling stars, sign to world 99 

False Christs 74 

Farrar, on prophecy fulfilled __ 35, 36 
Ferraris, on titles assumed by 

Pope 149 

Fig tree, parable of 115 

Finlay, on beginning of history of 

Middle Ages 134, 135 

Finlay, on rapid changes in sixth 

century 132 

Fire, everlasting 292, 293 

Fire, lake of 290 

Fire, unquenchable 292, 293 

First angel's message 239 

First day rest 164-166 

Firth, on fall of Ottoman power. 343 
Flammarion, on density of star 

shower 95 

" Forever and ever," meaning of 

291, 292 

" Fortnightly Review," on Tur- 
key's position 333, 334 

Fox family, origin of modern 

Spiritualism 269 

France, decree of, to abolish re- 
ligion 140 

French Revolution, Lamartine on 140 
French Revolution, significant 
events of 140 

" Gazette and Country Journal " 

on dark day 88 

Gehenna, a valley near Jerusalem 293 

Gentiles, gospel carried to 234, 235 

Gibbon, on power of Rome 46 

Gibbon, on Roman Empire 209 

Gibbon, on site of Nineveh 29 

Gibbon, on struggle for Italy 134 

God's challenge to false religious 

systems 25 

Goldastus, on Sabbath keepers in 

Alpine valleys 175 

Gospel, agencies for work of 311 

Gospel, China, opened to the 309 

Gospel, doors open to, in all 

world 309 



374 



Index to Subjects and Authorities 



Gospel for our dav, the 247, 24S 

Gospel message, solemn ■warning 

in 245, 249 

Gospel, open doors for. Dr. Pier- 
son on 310 

Gospel, printing press an agency 

of 313 

Gospel, telegraph used in carry- 
ing 318 

Gospel, the everlasting 24S 

Gospel to the Gentiles 234, 235 

Goths, defeat of 134 

Great controversy, earth the bat- 
tle ground of 259 

Grecia, Alexander first king of__ 207 
Grecia, conquests of, under Alex- 
ander 121. 122 

Grecia, division of, Dr. Albert 

Barnes on 122 

Grecia, prophecy and history of 

206. 207. 121. 324 

Grecia. prophecy concerning, in 

Daniel 2 44 

Greece, division of 20S 

Greeley, Spiritualism tested by__ 269 
Grey, Sir Edward, on Satanic 

agencies 342 

Guardian angels 300 

Gutenberg's first types 314 

Hales, on authenticity of Ptol- 
emy's canon 225 

Harris, on the Bible 20-21 

Hastings, on Valley of Hinnom__ 293 
■■ Hearst's Magazine," on growth 

of discontent 112 

Heresies, papal order against 150 

Herodotus, on doctrine of immor- 
tality 291 

Herodotus, on Pythius, the Lydian 323 
Hieroglyphics, the " Ox Song "__ 312 

Hinnom, Valley of 293 

Hippolytus, on power of Pwom.e__ 46 
Hippolytus, on prophecy of Rome 

fulfilled 126 

Hiscox, on change of Sabbath_166, 167 
His cox, on Sunday mark of 

paganism 170 

History, prophecy confirmed by 

35-37 

Hobbs, Professor, on Lisbon 

earthquake 79 

Holtzman, on Bible and tradi- 
tion 252 

Home of the saved 361-370 

Horace, ode on Rome 47 

Horace, on might of Rome 20S 

Hughes, on Jerusalem's part in 

closing history 325 

Huguenots, persecution of, Kurtz 

on 76 

Humboldt, on other displays of 

falling stars 99 

Humphreys, on appearance of fall- 
ing stars 96 

Hutton. on abolition of religion 

in France 140 

Hymn on state of dead, by Hora- 
tius Bonar 2S2 



Image of Daniel 2 ng 

Image to the Papacy 251 

Immortality, doctrine of 291 

Immortality, doctrine of, Herod- 
otus on 291 

Immortality, God only has 282 

Immortality of the sotil 275-2S5 

Immortality, the gift of Gad_275, 282 

Immortality, when bestowed 279 

Increase of knowledge 306-317 

■■■ Independent Chronicle." on Dark 

Day SS, 89 

Infant baptism. Dean Stanley on__ 202 
Ising, visit of, to site of Nebu- 
chadnezzar's palace 35 

Italy, struggle for, Gibbon on 134 

Jerusalem, Artaxerxes' decree to 

rebuild L 223-225 

Jerusalem, date of decree to re- 
store 223 

Jerusalem, destruction of tem- 
ple at 70 

Jerusalem, headquarters of king 

of the Xorth 328 

Jerusalem, heart of Eastern 

Question, Finn on 346 

Jerusalem, last days of 66 

Jerusalem, last gathering place, 

Mukaddasi on 328 

Jerusalem, Moslems turn toward- 330 
Jerusalem, part of, in closing his- 
tory, Hughes on 328 

Jerusalem, signs of approaching 

doom of 67-69 

Jessup on falling stars 100 

Jesus, the restorer 362 

Jesus, time of baptism of 230 

Jews, fanaticism of. Ridpath on 67 

Joseph, prophecy fulfilled to 26 

Josephus, on destruction of tem- 
ple 70 

Judgment, Christ's work in 

sanctuary 216, 217 

Judgment hour, many witnesses 

proclaim 240. 241 

Judgment-hour message 247-255 

•Judgment-hour message, a call to 

loyalty 249 

Judgment-hour message, John 

Wesley on 249 

Judgment-hour warning, Bengel- 

ius on 249 

Judgment, law of God the stand- 
ard in 189 

Judgment, message of, in 1844__ 239 

Judgment, the hour of God's 237 

Judgment, time of the investi- 
gative 235-237 

Judgment upon Satan 361-263 

Jurieu, on fall of the Papacy_140, 141 

Justification and righteousness 195 

Justification by faith 191 

Justification not by works 192 

Justification, what it is 196, 197 

Justinian, achievements of. Bury 

on 132 

.Justinian as source of papal 
power. Croly on 133 



Index of Subjects and Authorities 



375 



Justinian, decree of, in A. D. 533_ 133 
Justin, on Alexander 207 

Keyser, on Sabbath keeping in 

Norway 175 

Killen, on change of Sabbath 169 

Kingdom of God, when to be set 

up 48 

Kingdoms of modern Europe 46 

King of the North, the modern- _ 326 
King of the North, remioval of, to 

Jerusalem 328 

Kings of the North and South__ 325 

Knowledge, increase of ^^_ 306 

Knowledge, increase of, Francis 

Bacon on 306, 307 

Knowledge, increase of, Lorimer 

on 307 

Kurtz, on persecution of Hugue- 
nots "76 

Lake of fire, the 290 

Lamartine, on French Revolution 140 

Langley, on falling stars 101 

Lang, on Sabbath in Scotland. _ 174 
Laodicea, Council of, on Sabbath 

keeping 173, 174 

Lawgiver, only one 188 

Law of God changed by Papacy, 

Melanchthon on 154 

Law of God, character of 183 

Law of God, existed from the 

beginning 184, 185 

Law of God, given anew at Sinai_ 186 
Law of God, given with his own 

voice 187 

Law of God, office of 183, 184 

Law of God, relation of, to jus- 
tification 191, 193 

Law of God, standard in the 

judgment 189 

Law of God, standard of right- 
eousness 188 

Law of God, the 182-189 

Law of God unchangeable 153 

Layard, on the desolation of Baby- 
lon 35 

Lazarus, parable of rich man and 

284, 285 

Lecky, on papal persecution 150 

Leo XIII, encyclical letter of; 149 

Leonard, Dr., on missionary ac- 
tivity 307 

" Library of Christian Doctrine," 

on change of Sabbath 154, 155 

Life only in Christ 275-285 

Lindsay, on Ptolemy's Canon 225 

Lisbon earthquake, extent of 81 

Lisbon earthquake, James Parton 

on 80 

Lisbon earthquake, lessons from, 

John Biddolf on 82 

Lisbon earthquake, Professor 

Hobbs on 79 

Lisbon earthquake recognized as 

a sign 82 

Lisbon earthquake, Voltaire on__ 80 



Lisbon earthquake, world set to 

thinking by 80 

Little horn 208 

Little horn and fourth kingdom 

126, 127 

Little horn, great words of, Bell- 

armine on 147 

Little horn, great words of, El- 
liott on 147 

Little horn in prophecy and his- 
tory 127 

Little horn, period of supremacy 

of 145 

Little horn, time of rise of 145 

Little horn, work of 145-147 

Lorimer, on increase of knowledge 307 

Lucan, on Alexander 45 

Lucan, on greatness of Rome 209 

Lucifer, the light-bearer 258 

Luther, on meaning of word 

"baptism" 201 

Luther, on use of printing art__ 318 



MacFarlane, on approaching end 
of Turks 333 

Mahaffy, on kingdoms of north 

and south 325 

Man, nature of, and state in death 

275-285 

Manner of Christ's coming 53 

Manning, Cardinal, on power of 

Rome 125 

Mark, or sign, of papal authority 

251-253 

Mark, or sign, use of. Potter on_ 250 
Martin, on growth of discontent- _ 112 
Maspero, on Eastern Question. _ 322 

Matthew 24, prophecy of 65-77 

Mears, Dr., on conditions after 

Christ 67 

" Medieval Europe," Bemont and 

Monod 137 

Medo-Persia, ^schylus on 121 

Medo-Persia in prophecy and his- 
tory 120, 121, 206 

Medo-Persia, prophecy of, Dan- 
iel 2 43, 44 

Megiddo, or Armageddon, Car- 
mack on 344 

Melanchthon, on change of law 

by Papacy 154 

Message of the judgment hour__ 

247-255 

Messengers of deliverance, an- 
gels as 300 

Messiah, covenant confirmed by_ 

231-235 

Messiah, time of baptism of 230 

Michael, standing up of 327 

Middle Ages, beginning of history 

of, Finlay on 134, 135 

Millennium, beginning of _- 351, 352 

Millennium, diagram of 350 

Milfennium, events at beginning 

of 352 

Millennium, events at end of 356 

Millennium, events in heaven 
during 354 



3?6 



Index of Subjects and Authorities 



Millennium, events on earth dur- 
ing 355 

Millennium, the 351-359 

Milner, on falling stars 94 

Milton, on Sabbath observance- _ 

177, 178 

Missionary activity, Dr. Leon- 
ard on 307 

Missionary developm.ents of cen- 

tui-y - 113 

Missionary movement, a sign of 

Christ's coming _ 112 

Missionary movement, increased 

activity of 113 

Missions, open doors for 309 

Missions, Pierson on open doors 

for 310 

Monarchies, the four univei-sal__ 118 
Monod, Bemont and, " Medieval 

Europe" 137 

Mortal, the natural state of man 276 

Mortality, universal 277 

Moslems, Jerusalem as capital 

for - 330 

Motley, on persecution in Nether- 
lands . 150 

Mukaddasi, on Jerusalem as last 

gathering place of nations 328 

Myers, on history of Greece 208 

Nations, anger of 107 

Neander, on first-day collections- 166 
Neander, on manner of baptism- _ 201 

Nebuchadnezzar, dream of 39-41 

Nebuchadnezzar, exploits of, Bero- 

sus on 120 

Nebuchadnezzar, palace of, Ising 

on 35 

Nebuchadnezzar, stone records of 43 
Necromancy, divine warnings 

against 267 

Netherlands, persecution in. Mot- 
ley on 150 

New birth, Bible an agency of_- 15 

Newcomb, on falling stars 95 

New earth, the 364-370 

New Jerusalem, descent of 356 

New Jerusalem, the 364-367 

Newman, Cardinal, on rites bor- 
rowed from paganism 169 

Newton, Sir Isaac, on prophetic 

study 304, 305 

" Nineteenth Century and After," 

on new spirit in East 344 

" Nineteenth Century and After," 
on preparation for war__ 339, 341 

Nineveh, Rawlinson on 27 

Nineveh, site of, Gibbon on 29 

Nineveh, the witness of 27 



Olmsted, on brilliancy of falling 

stars 97 

Olmsted, on shooting stars 95 

Origin of evil 257-26J. 

Ottoman empire 326 

Ottoman power, fall of. Firth on_ 343 
Our day, gospel for 247 



Paganism, rites borrowed from. 

Cardinal Newman on 169 

Palestine as battle field. Encyclo- 
pedia Britannica on 325, 326 

Palestine as great center, " Fort- 
nightly Review " on 345 

Palestine, as political storm cen- 
ter 345 

Palestine, as religious storm cen- 
ter, "Spectator" on 345 

Papacy, a persecuting power 137 

Papacy, change of times and 

laws by 153 

Papacy, claims of 155, 156 

Papacy, counterpart of little 

horn 145, 147 

Papacy, end of supremacy of 139 

Papacy, extinction of. Canon 

Trevor on 141, 142 

Papacy, fall of, Jurieu on __ 140, 141 
Papacy, France strikes against-- 140 
Papacy, great words of, Elliott 

on 147 

Papacy, image to the 251 

Papacy, law changed by, Melanch- 

thon on 154 

Papacy, orders of, to destroy 

heresy 150 

Papacy, persecution by, Lecky on 150 
Papacy plucked up Arian king- 
doms 129 

Papacy, power of, Leo XIII on__ 149 

Papacy shall wear out saints 149 

Papacy, sign of authority of 156 

Papacy, supremacy of 129 

Papacy, supremacy of acknowl- 
edged 132, 133 

Papacy, time of its supremacy — 

131, 132 

Papal authority, mark of 251 

Papal claims in encyclical letter 

of Leo XIII 149 

Papal persecution, Baudrillart on 151 

Papal persecution, Lecky on 150 

Papal persecutions, " Western 

Watchman" on 151 

Papal power, Sunday the mark of 252 

Papal power, work of the 250 

Papal supremacy, beginning of_- 132 

Papal supremacy, end of 139 

Papal supremacy ofiicially recog- 
nized 133 

Parable of the fig tree 115 

Parable of the rich man and Laz- 
arus 284, 285 

Parable of the ten virgins-- 348, 349 

Parton, on Lisbon earthquake 80 

Peace and safety 107 

Peace prophecies 338 

Persecution after Christ's death- 235 
Persecution for Sabbath observ- 
ance 178 

Persecution in Netherlands, Mot- 
ley on 150 

Persecution in time of the end-- 73 
Persecution, papal, Baudrillart on 151 

Persecution, papal, Lecky on 150 

Persecution, signs of end follow 

73-75 

Persecution under Papacy.- 149-153 



Index of Subjects and Authorities 



377 



Persecutions, papal, " Western 

Watchman " on 151 

Persia, rise and fall of 322-324 

Phalerius, king urged by, to se- 
cure Jewish sacred books__ 187, 188 
Pierson, Dr., on open doors for 

gospel 310 

" Plain Talks," on Sunday ob- 
servance 251 

Pleasure, passion for, M. Comte 

on 109 

Pleasure, passion for, sign of 

Christ's coming 109 

Plutarch, on Alexander 45 

Plutarch, on Alexander's con- 
quests 121, 122 

Political unrest 106, 107 

Polybius, on dominion of Rome__ 208 
Pope Gregory, on Sabbath observ- 
ance 174 

Pope Innocent II, orders of, to 

destroy heresies 150 

Pope Leo XIII, encyclical letter 

of 149 

Pope Leo XIII, on power of 

Papacy 149 

Pope taken prisoner, Joseph Rick- 

aby on 141 

Pope, titles assumed by, Ferraris 

on 149 

Pope Vigilius, date of reign of, 

Schaff on 137 

Popes, a new order of 135 

Popes declared saints 137 

Popes no longer declared saints __ 137 
Popes, temporal power of, Conroy 

on 129 

Potter, on use of a mark, or sign 250 
Present-day conditions, meaning 

of 105-115 

Press, the Mighty (poem) 317 

Pride, cause of Satan's fall 258 

Prince of Tyre 258 

Printing, Gutenberg's first types- 314 

Printing, Luther on art of 318 

Printing press, a gospel agency__ 318 
Printing press, illustrations of__ 

315, 316 

Printing press, the mighty 317 

Prophecies of Christ's coming 52 

Prophecy, Armageddon foretold in 

346, 347 

Prophecy concerning Babylon 

31-33, 40 

Prophecy fulfilled, Farrar on 36 

Prophecy fulfilled to Joseph 26 

Prophecy fulfilling. Marquis of 

Salisbury on 338 

Prophecy of Daniel 7 117-129 

Prophecy of Daniel 8 205-211 

Prophecy of Daniel unsealed 304 

Prophecy, of increase of knowl- 
edge 306 

Prophecy of Matthew 24 65-77 

Prophecy of the judgment. Reve- 
lation 14 239 

Prophecy of Tyre 30, 31 

Prophecy of 2300 years fulfilled 
229-237 



Prophecy, study of, John Adol- 
phus on 305 

Prophecy, the sure word of 25 

Prophecy, witness of the cen- 
turies to 25-37 

Prophetic outline of world's his- 

tory 39.49 

Prophetic period, a great 219-227 

Prophetic study. Sir Isaac New- 

ton on 304, 305 

Prophetic word, testimony of his- 

tory to 35-37 

Protestants, persecution of, the 

"Western Watchman" on 151 

Ptolemy's canon, authenticity of. 

Hales on ' 225 

Ptolemy's canon, Lindsay on I 225 

Pullus, on manner of baptism _I 202 

Punishment, everlasting 289, 292 

Purification of the earth 1 359 

Pythius, the Lydian, Herodotus on 323 

Railroads, construction of, Wal- 
lace on 323 

Rawlinson, on Alexander's ~ do- 

minion 324, 325 

Kawlinson, on Cyrus's conquests. 121 
Rawlinson, on division of Alex- 
ander's kingdom 122 

Rawlinson, on Nineveh I_ 27 

Reformation a progressive work_ 255 
Religion, abolition of, by French, 

Hutton on ' 140 

Resurrection, baptism the me- 
morial of 199 

Resurrection of the just__59, 61," 352 

Resurrection of the wicked 62 

Resurrection, the second, Satan 

freed at 262 

Resurrections, the two . 2887 289 

Rich man and Lazarus, parable 

„.o^ 284, 285 

Rickaby, on Berthier entering 

Rome 141 

Ridpath, on fanaticism of Jews__ 67 
Righteousness and justification. _ 

195-197 

Righteousness, God's law the 

standard of 188 

Righteousness, the gift of Christ 

193, 194 

Righteous taken to heaven 353 

Righteous, translation of living. _ 

- 59.61 

Righteous, with Christ a thou- 
sand years 62 

Roman Empire divided 47, 127 

Roman Empire, Gibbon on '_ 209 

Roman Papacy, rise of, to su- 
premacy 129 

Romans, power of, Strabo on 46 

Rome, Alexander's plans for con- 
quest of, Plutarch on 44 

Rome, Bishop of, head of church_ 133 

Rome divided 43 

Rome, dominion of, Polybius on_ 208 

Rome, greatness of, Lucan on 209 

Rome, in prophecy and history. _ 
123-125, 208 



378 



Index of Subjects and Authorities 



Rome, might of, Horace on 208 

Home, ode of Horace on 47 

Rome, power of. Cardinal Man- 
ning on 125 

Rome, power of. Gibbon on 46 

Rome, power of, Hippolytus on__ 46 
Rome, prophecy of, in Daniel 2_ 45, 46 

Rome, prophecy of, fulfilled 125 

Rome, prophecy of, fulfilled, Hip- 
polytus on 126 

Rome, rise of, in West 44 

Rosebery, Lord, on Armageddon__ 339 
Rosse, astronomical observations 

by 100 

" Run to and fro," Wright on 
meaning of 311 

Sabbatarian Baptists 179 

Sabbath, and the first day 164-166 

Sabbath, at time of exodus 160 

Sabbath, change of, "Abridgment 

of the Christian Doctrine " on_ 156 
Sabbath, change of, " Dictionary 

of Christian Antiquities " on__ 166 
Sabbath, change of, Hiscox on 

166, 167 

Sabbath, change of, " Library of 

Christian Doctrine" on 154, 155 

Sabbath, Conybeare and Howson 

on 165 

Sabbath, example and teaching of 

Jesus regarding 162 

Sabbath, given at Sinai 161 

Sabbath, how changed 167 

Sabbath in Alpine valleys, Gol- 

dastus on 175 

Sabbath in England, Stennet on__ 179 
Sabbath in Europe, Dr. Chambers 

on 177 

Sabbath, in time of disciples 163 

Sabbath keepers in Norway, Key- 

ser on 175 

Sabbath keepers in Scotland, 

Lang on :-- 174 

Sabbath keepers in Scotland, 

Skene on 175 

Sabbath keeping, action of Coun- 
cil of Laodicea on 173, 174 

Sabbath keeping after New Tes- 
tament times 173-181 

Sabbath keeping among Moravians 180 
Sabbath keeping, Bampfield died 

for 179 

Sabbath keeping, persecution for, 

Bogue on 178, 179 

Sabbath keeping, Roger Williams 

on , 180 

Sabbath, Killen on change of 169 

Sabbath observance, Bower on 174 

Sabbath observance, Brerewood 

on 173 

Sabbath observance, Charles I on_ 177 
Sabbath observance, John Milton 

on 177, 178 

Sabbath observance, Pope Gregory 

on 174 

Sabbath observance, Sozomen's 

Ecclesiastical History on 174 

Sabbath, persecution for keeping. 178 



Sabbath, seventh-day, record of__ 
160-164 

Sabbath, the sign of God's author- 
ity 253 

Sabbath, the Bible 159-170 

Sabbath, through Israel's his- 
tory 162 

Saints, eternal home of 361, 367 

Saints, Papacy to wear out 149 

Saints, time of resurrection of 352 

Salisbury, Lord, on policy of help- 
ing Turkey 331 

Salisbury, Marquis of, on prepara- 
tion for war 342 

Salisbury, Marquis of, on proph- 
ecy fulfilling 338 

Sanctuary, Christ's ministry in__ 216 
Sanctuary, cleansing of_ 211, 213-217 

Santee, L. D., poem by 103 

Satan, binding of 353 

Satan, cause of fall of 258 

Satan, end of reign of 262 

Satan, judgment upon 261-263 

Satan, the loosing of 356 

Satanic agencies at work 341-343 

Satanic agencies. Sir Edward 

Grey on 342 

Saved, home of the 361-370 

Schaff, on date of Tiberius's reign_ 230 

Schaff, on Vigilius made Pope 135 

Second coming of Christ 51-63 

Second coming of Christ, see 

Coming of Christ. 
Segur, on observance of Sunday 

by Protestants 251 

Seventh-day Adventists, origin of 

243 244 

Seventh-day Baptists in America 

179, 180 

Seventh-day Sabbath, Bible rec- 
ord of 160-164 

Seventy weeks, events of 22J 

Seventy weeks, starting point of 

221, 222 

Signs in the heavens 74 

Signs of Christ's coming 74-77 

Signs of Christ's coming, given 

in Matthew 24 65, 66 

Signs of Christ's coming, in in- 
dustrial world 110 

Signs of Christ's coming, in social 

world 109 

Signs of the end 65 

Signs of the end, signal to watch_ 102 

Signs of the last days 73, 74 

Signs upon the earth 74, 105 

Sinai, law of God given anew at_ 186 

Sinai, Sabbath given at 161 

Sin, the end of 358 

Sin, the origin of 257 

Sin, the wages of 289 

Skene, on Sabbath in Scotland 175 

Sleep of the dead 280-282 

Sophocles, on universal mortality 

277. 278 

" Soul " and " spirit," Scriptural 

use of 283 

Soul, immortality of 275 

Soul, living, Dr. Clarke on 283 

Soul, the " living," comments on_ 283 



Index of Subjects and Authorities 



379 



Sozomen's Ecclesiastical History, 

on Sabbath observance 174 

Spangenberg, on Sabbath-keeping 

Moravians 180 

" Spirit " and "soul," Scriptural 

use of 283 

Spirit, death declared to have no 

power over 269 

Spirits, angels as ministering 295 

Spiritualism, ancient and modern 

265-273 

Spiritualism and theosophy, Mme. 

Jean Delaire on 272, 273 

Spiritualism, first declaration of 

265-267 

Spiritualism, modern, originated 

in Fox family 269 

Spiritualism, modern. Prof. Wal- 
lace on 265, 268 

Spiritualism of East, taught by 

Mrs. Besant 273 

Spiritualism, progress of, Mrs. 

Underbill on 269 

Spiritualism, satanic agencies of_ 271 

Spiritualism tested by Greeley 269 

Spiritualism, the climax of decep- 
tion 272 

Spiritualism, the dead not agencies 

of 271 

Spiritualism, warnings against 267 

Spurgeon, on authorship of Bible 14 
Spurgeon's experience with Bible 14 
Stanley, Dean, on baptism of in- 
fants 202 

Stanley, Dean, on collection on 

first day 166 

Stanley, Dean, on manner of bap- 
tism 202 

Stanley, Dean, on Sunday, day of 

the sun 170 

Star shower, density of, Flam- 

marion on ■ 95 

Stars, falling, a sign to the world 99 
Stars, falling, brilliancy of, Olm- 
sted on 97 

Stars, falling, Chambers's Astron- 
omy on : 101 

Stars, falling, described by Jessup_ 100 
Stars, falling, glory of, Gierke on 

101, 102 

Stars, falling, Humphreys on 96 

Stars, falling, impression made 

by, Milner on 99 

Stars, falling, " Journal of Com- 
merce " on 97 

Stars, falling, nature of. Twining 

on 96 

Stars, falling, other displays of, 

Humboldt on 99, 100 

Stars, falling. Professor Langley 

on 101 

Stars, falling. Sir Robert Ball on_ 100 
Stars, falling, Thomas Milner on 94 

Stars, shooting, Olmsted on 95 

Stars, the falling 93-102 

Stearns, Dr. Samuel, on dark day 

89, 90 

Stennet, on Sabbath in England- 179 

Stephen, stoning of 234 

Stoning of Stephen 234 



Strabo, on desolation of Babylon. 34 

Strabo, on power of Romans 46 

Sun, darkening of 85 

Sunday, day of the sun. Dean 

Stanley on 170 

Sunday, Dean Stanley on collec- 
tion on 163 

Sunday law, Constantine's 163 

Sunday law, Constantine's, Web- 
ster on 169, 170 

Sunday, mark of paganism, His- 

cox on 17Q 

Sunday, mark of papal power 252 

Sunday, Neander on collection on_ 166 

Sunday, not sacred. Dale on 166 

Sunday observance by Protestants, 

Segur on 251 

Sunday observance, " Doctrinal 

Catechism " on 252 

Sunday previous to Constantine__ 169 

Sunday rest, not of God 165 

Sunday, sign of papal authority.- 156 



Tabernacle, service of earthly 214 

Telegraph, first demonstrated 314 

Telegraph, used in carrying gospel 318 
Temple at Jerusalem, destruction 

of, as predicted 79 

Ten horns of beast, Daniel 7 127 

Ten kingdoms, Daniel 2 46-48 

Ten virgins, parable of 348, 349 

Testimony of history to fulfilment 

of prophecy 36 

Theosophy and Spiritualism, Mme. 

Delaire on 272 

Thief on the cross, the 284 

This Same Jesus 54-56 

Thomson, on Tyre's departed 

glory 81 

Thousand years, diagram of 3 50 

Thousand years, end of 289 

Thousand years, righteous with 

Christ L 62 

Thwaites, Clara, " The Last 

Hour," poem 114 

Tiberius Caesar, time of reign of 

230 231 

Time of the end 303-317 

Times and laws. Papacy to think 

to change 153 

Tradition and the Bible, Council 

of Trent on 252 

Translation of the righteous 59-61 

Travel, revolution in 313 

Trent, Council of, on tradition 

and the Bible 252 

Trevor, Canon, on revolt against 

absolutism 141 

Tribulation, the period of 73 

Turkey, Lord Salisbury on help- 
ing of 331 

Turkey, position of, " Fortnightly 

Review" on 333. 334 

Turkish power, fall of, prelude to 

Armageddon 348 

Turks, doom of. Blunt on 333 

Turks, end of, near, MacFarlane 

on 333 



380 



Index of Subjects and Authorities 



Twelve hundred and sixty years 
131-137 

Twelve hundred and sixty years, 
end of 139 

Twenty-three hundred days, dia- 
gram of 220 

Twenty-three hundred years, end- 
ing of 235 

Twenty-three hundred years of 
Daniel 8 219 

Twenty-three hundred years, 
prophecy fulfilled 229-237 

Twining, on nature of falling 

Two resurrections, the 288, 289 

Tyre, desolation of, Bruce on 31 

Tyre, glory departed, Thomson on 31 
Tyre, prophecy concerning 80, 31 



Underhill, Mrs, A. L., on prog- 
ress of Spiritualism 269 

Universal empires, four great 117 

Unquenchable fire 292, 293 



Valley of Hinnom, Hastings on__ 293 
Van Dyke, Dr. Henry, on language 
of Bible 21, 22 

Veil, rending of 231 

Vigilius, Pope, date of reign, 

Schaff on 135, 137 

Voltaire, on Lisbon earthquake. _ 80 

Wages of sin 289 

Wallace, Alfred Russel, on revolu- 
tion in travel 313 

Wallace, Alfred Russel, on Spir- 
itualism 265, 268 

War, god of, Lord Avebury on__ 112 
War, preparation for. Marquis of 
Salisbury on 342 



War, preparation for, "Nine- 
teenth Century and After" 

339-841 

War, preparation for. Queen Alex- 
andra on 339 

War, sign of end, " Church Mis- 
sionary Review" on 343 

Webster, Noah, on dark day 87 

Webster, Prof. Hutton, on Con- 

stantine's Sunday law 169, 170 

Weeks, the seventy, starting 

point of 221, 222 

Wesley, John, on judgment-hour 

message 249 

" Western Watchman," on perse- 
cution of Protestants 151 

Whittier, on dark day 86, 90 

Wicked, before bar of God 357 

Wicked, destruction of 61, 353 

Wicked, end of 287-293 

Wicked, final destruction of 356-359 

Wicked, resurrection of 62 

Williams, on dark day in New 

England 86 

Williams, Roger, on Sabbath 

keeping 180 

Word, see Bible. 

Word that creates, the 15 

Wordsworth, on dawn of Refor- 
mation 149 

World-wide movement, a 239-245 

Wright, on meaning of " run to 
and fro" 811 

Xenophon, on Cyrus , 206 

Xerxes' host, .^schylus on 823 

Years, the 1260, of Daniel's 
prophecy 131-137 



Zinzendorf, a Sabbath keeper 180 

Zinzendorf, Nikolaus, poem by__ 227 



4 



